Leadership skills taught by NZ Young Farmers course

The Raising the Standards course was run by NZ Young Farmers and funded by DairyNZ.

East Coast student Phoebe Williams has spent part of the school holidays honing her leadership skills.

The 16 year old was one of 18 lower North Island students selected to attend a three-day leadership programme in Feilding.

The course, called Raising the Standards, was run by NZ Young Farmers and funded by DairyNZ.

It was designed to enhance the skills of emerging leaders within TeenAg clubs.

"I really enjoyed it. It was cool meeting new people and learning new skills," said Phoebe.
Students were taught how to set goals, communicate, deal with conflict, run effective meetings and write a curriculum vitae.

"It's about producing confident young adults who can excel in the primary industries," said Mary Holmes from NZ Young Farmers.

Phoebe is the secretary of the TeenAg club at Iona College in Havelock North where she's a boarder.

The Year 12 student is studying chemistry, physics, biology, maths, agriculture and english and plans to be a vet.

Her family runs a 1011ha sheep and beef farm in Gisborne.

"As part of the course we visited the dairy farm at Feilding High School and got to see a robotic milking machine in action," she said. "I've never seen anything like that in my life before."

Schoolmates Josie Free from Dannevirke and Penny Wilson from Wairoa were also on the leadership course.

Gisborne's Anna Meban, a student at Woodford House in Havelock North, also took part.

The course ended on Wednesday and is the second of three planned across New Zealand this year.

TeenAg clubs are a key part of the work being done by NZ Young Farmers to attract students into the agri-food sector.