It has been a busy start to the term for our Year 10 students who are working on their Certificate in Horticulture. Each fortnight, Peter, the trainer from TAFE visits the College to work with the students. In the alternate weeks, we have been lucky enough to have volunteer horticulturalist, Clinton McGrath working with the students to back up the training the receive through TAFE.

Clinton lives in Highfields and travels across each fortnight to help the students as he believes that there is a skills gap with horticulturalists and that it is important to encourage young people to become interested in the industry. At high school, Clinton was an ag student himself, so he understands the needs of a high school student who is studying agriculture and is keen to ignite a similar passion in others. Clinton believes that most things we eat and wear at some point, were grown from the ground, so there are many opportunities available for anyone who is thinking about moving into the  industry.

Having travelled all over the world, Clinton has a vast knowledge of broad scale horticulture right down to the home vegetable garden and this week, he had students planting out various vegetable seeds in one of the Ag gardens outside the Science block. The students were also inspecting the growth of their broccoli seedlings which have been fertilised according to regular soil test and water conductivity measurements. The broccoli will soon be planted out in the Ag field to become a commercial crop. You may even be able to buy some fresh broccoli from our Year 10 Certificate students some time next term!

The College would like to thank Clinton for volunteering his time to enhance the learning our certificate students are experiencing.