Forestry growth sees changing times at Toi Ohomai

The forestry industry is changing from manual to mechanised labour.

As news of the government's impending new Forestry Service being established in Rotorua spreads, growing numbers of people are thinking about a career in, or a return to, forestry and the skills needed to make that transition.

One of those people, Pauline Edge, is not afraid of a challenge. The mother of four is currently finishing the second year of Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology's New Zealand Diploma in Forest Management, forging a rewarding career path in what many still see as a male-dominated industry.

"It's pretty full on," says Pauline. "In the evenings, I get all four of my kids sorted to do their homework and then at night, I get started with mine.

"The biggest challenge is getting everyone ready for school in the mornings."

With the diploma covering skills such as forestry science, harvesting operations, remote sensing and forest nutrition, Pauline says her eyes have been opened to the largely unseen variety of career options that forestry management offers.

A perspective recently enhanced when she landed a work experience role with Forest Distribution Limited (FDL) over her holiday break.

"Working for FDL was my first ever forestry job and I think it will help me a lot going forward. They were all really happy with how fast I picked everything up, thanks to my training at Toi Ohomai."

Pauline describes gaining first-hand industry experience with modern forestry software, export processes, log grades and logistics while still a student as "huge".

"My achievements have made me really proud of myself and I am excited to keep learning, to dig deeper into select areas of expertise, and grow."

With applications now open for 2018, the diploma is not the only forestry-based course at Rotorua's Mokoia Campus seeing growth.

"Contractors saw our forestry operations students learning inside our high-tech excavator simulators and were impressed at their skill level after just 9 weeks," says Richard Stringfellow, Programme Area Lead - Forest Operations at Toi Ohomai.

"They said it would've taken them 6 months to get new employees to that level."

Richard says that acclaim laid the groundwork for the qualification's latest upgrade (and a New Zealand tertiary first for an institute of technology) - the arrival of a training excavator.

"It's a must for us now. The forestry industry is changing from manual to mechanised labour and now our students are getting live machine time as part of their qualification, with all exercises practised to industry standard."

Supported by PF Olsen, the initiative is designed to combat the lack of young, skilled operators in the industry, making sure students highly-honed virtual skills have a practical 'real world' finish.

With word of the institute's own excavator spreading, Richard says contractors are now referring staff, so that they can take advantage of this region-specific training opportunity.

"With the intake prior to the simulator's arrival, we borrowed a machine to test how effective it would be.

"Of those 13 students, eight are already employed within industry."