The Muster- Billie- Marie Henry

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And I'm catching up with Billy Marie from Telford this afternoon. Billy,
how are you good?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Good? Happy to be here?

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Billy. You are employed at Telford. Tell us a little
bit about your role there and what that entails.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
So I work with schools and doing what's of school visits,
but I also get to do lots of trips around
the country to careers exposed and of course the field Days.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Yeah, so big trip to National Field Days last week.
What was the vibe up there and talking to students
around the place.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Conversations around where Telford is or what we are are
becoming more and more common. So people actually came to
find us, they targeted us, and Wednesday, Thursday Friday were
extremely busy on the stands. We were non stop talking.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
So a lot of general interest in people wanting to
be part of our wider primary industry and egg culture sector.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Then absolutely, Yeah, we have got kids that are really
keen to, you know, learn hands on training. That's something
that we definitely provide. We've also got kids that are
super into the equine space as well, so we had
lots of students ranging from all sorts of different interests.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
You've currently got eighty six students on side at the moment,
is that right correct?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, so we've got eighty six. We're up on twenty
students from last year, so we are growing.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
And what are they up to at the moment, heading
into another.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Semester diplomas they have midyear exams, so that's on the sleek.
The rest of them are really focusing on their bookwork,
trying to get it all done over winter so we
can really maximize on the time. You know, when spring hits,
everyone just you know, all hands on helping out. So, yeah,

(01:57):
they're learning things like butchery. We've got some sensing going on.
Our rural animal health students are working on their Nasty
and Physiology exam this week and I et Quine wrapped
up about three weeks ago, and yeah, that course will
come back from break in a few more weeks.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
From here where we usually see the likes of the
Tailford students going from after they've completed their studies.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
I think the work experience component in the Farming System's
course is huge for that. We really do rely on
all of our workhost farmers and as we know, we're
all a very small community trying to reach the very
similar goals so within that student's gain really awesome references
and then those references really help get them jobs post graduation.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
So talk us a little bit about your work X,
because the students aren't just on campus, they're heading out
onto farm. They just said from quite a wide range
of different farms as well. I understand correct.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, we've got a list of seventy different farmers, so
that go all the way up to Glen Navy, back
down through the Southland and across to Fjordland, so it
provides plenty of perspective. We all know that people like
to run their farms differently, which provides another added challenge
to the learning experience for all of our students. So

(03:17):
throughout the term, throughout the year even there will be
timetabled weeks where students will spend one week each on
a farm. They will help out the farmer do what
they're doing throughout the week and across the year that
can provide different jobs as we all know that can
vary from months to months, so they really just immerse

(03:38):
themselves and learn off twelve different people over the year,
which is really cool.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
And Telford recently received a bit of a boost from
the government. What does that mean to you guys at
Telford being able to keep helping with that workforce into
our sector.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Oh, it's honestly incredible. We're so thankful. It's meant that
we can finally give our campus a well overdue facelift.
For example, we're starting with the new broofing in July,
so that will be the first project amongst many, and
we're really excited to see what can come of that.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Thank you very much for catching up with me, Billy,
and all the best for the students as they head
into the exams and the rest of the year, and
we look forward to catching up again.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Wonderful. Thank you very much, Gil.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Thanks Billy. That's Billy Marie. They're out of Talbot