Recently the Year 12 Agribusiness class went on a field trip to Central Otago.

It was a busy time for us as we visited the following people and places:

• James Dicey and the winemaker from Mt Difficulty
• Mark Robinson - Head of Farm Source - Otago and Southland, Fonterra
  
• Sarah Elsom ( Columba old girl) the head distiller at Cardrona Distillery
• Tim and Jess Zeestraten at Wanaka Lavender Farm.
• Mr Darling - Ettrick Apple Packing House

All were fantastic speakers and made the trip well worthwhile. We covered cash flow forecasting which is the Achievement Standard for this term. Real examples are a good way to find out how important the skill you are learning is. James Dicey added in some information about ownership as did Mark Robinson. This is the Achievement Standard which they did last term. All of the speakers talked about future proofing which is an important section of work taught at McGlashan.

Agribusiness at Year 13 has started its mentoring programme, where all  students have a personal mentor for the year. Unlike work experience, the mentors reflect the students' interests by providing an opportunity to engage with a person already working in their chosen agribusiness industry, to gain valuable insight into career opportunities. Currently there are mentors from Rabobank, Polson Higgs, DC Forests, AbacusBio, Techio, Oritain, Silver Fern Farms, Chamber of Commerce, Silver Fern Farms, and the Otago Peninsula Trust. 

We are currently looking for a mentor in the transport industry in logistics if anyone knows someone who would be keen to mentor one of our young men. Generally most people approached are very keen to help.

We have tried to enrich the programme with speakers. Year 13 have heard from Nicki Hand from Rabobank and Hamish Sutherland from Zeagold. Year 12 have had Garth Hannaforth from Ballance and Greg McSkimming and Andrew Cowie from Silver Fern Farms in to speak to them.