Agricultural education program yielding success but not in Vic

The Primary Industry Centre for Science Education (PICSE) is a collaborative program with universities and primary industries which involves attracting students to study agricultural science and related disciplines.

Student Alana Johnson spoke on ABC Central Victoria to Jonathan Ridnell on the benefits the program has brought her.

"How I found out about primary industries was actually through this PICSE program.. I applied for this program and it has definitely opened all the career opportunities to ag (agriculture) for me.

"They took us on a week's camp during the December holidays last year and from that we went through various areas in the New England area that covered all aspects of ag from dairy farms, to the Guyra tomato exchange and soils and sheep so we covered a lot of corners," she said.

Alanah said many students are not aware of the career opportunities and jobs available in agriculture.

"I don't think many kids are even introduced to the perspective of having a career in agriculture just because it's not part of their life - a lot of these city kids don't even know parts of agriculture.

"What we did is travel to Canberra and had a round table forum trying to figure out how we could get these young people involved in the industry and how to put the industry out there and give it a better image.

"I am very passionate about getting into plant production as well as getting young people into the industry through just running school programs and introducing it into the education system," she said.

With programs running across the nation Alana said it would be beneficial to have another program in Victoria to attract more to the industry.

"PICSE has been such a beneficial program, it's changed many minds about peoples careers and where we wanted to go.

"It is definitely something worthwhile to invest it across all universities because we do need to fill this ag industry and getting these kids expose to the industry will really help," she said.

National director of the PICSE program said it isn't far off negotiating a program being established in Victoria.

He said a number of Victorian institutions have been interested in the program and expects plans on future programs to be announced within six months.

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