Among the mayhem was Cobram Secondary College’s enthusiastic quartet of Cooper Adkins, Jayden Woodhead, Ethan Brooks and Imogen Brooks, who were put through their paces in an event like no other.
Teams raced to firstly construct a cow from polystyrene and much imagination, before making up a precise mixture of reconstituted calving milk, constructing a miniature wheelbarrow, erecting a small yard and then donning pride-sapping costumes before racing the length of the arena, holding hands, in front of a 400-strong not-quite-baying crowd.
Cobram Secondary College Principal Kimberly Tempest said two members of the school’s team worked on farms and could combine that experience with a Certificate II in Agriculture degree, giving them further on-farm exposure.
“We are really here to find out a little bit about what career they can follow,” Ms Tempest said.
“Next year we have the Cobram Fruit Growers Association coming to create a small orchard on our grounds and we plan to also have chickens and calves.
“We are creating our own little farm.”
Year 12 student Jayden Woodhead will be starting his Certificate III this year and said that vocational education gave him more opportunities.
“Compared to academic subjects it’s exciting work,“ Jayden said.
“You can go anywhere, you can travel and you can walk in anywhere and say ‘I need some work and I know how to milk, how to look after calves’.
“And (the course) gets you out and about in the sun doing things.
“We are not sitting in the classroom; we go out and on to a farm.
“We are actually watching a bloke doing work and then he lets us do the work – under supervision of course.
“So it’s something you look forward to.”
Jayden’s aspiration is first to ‘make a bit of money’ but afterwards plans to return to agriculture, fattening beef cattle after establishing himself with some real estate.
Ms Tempest said opportunities in vocational education made careers more accessible than for city-based students.
“It is the ‘prac’ basis of the Cert II where the kids get experience working with a range of opportunity that our students can have in their own backyard,” she said.
“They don’t need to leave home; they don’t need to go to Melbourne.
“These jobs are not just entry-level jobs; these are career jobs.
“My goal for all of our students is that they have a career in front of them and not just a job.”
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