The second year students have spent that last eight weeks getting hands-on experience in the agriculture industry through the college’s exchange program.

Students travelled to places such as New Zealand, Canada and the UK for industry placement as part of their agricultural skills development. 

Longerenong College industry placement co-ordinator Greg Radford said placements were a great way for students to learn more about the agriculture industry.

“I think this was one of the best exchanges that we’ve ever had,” he said.

“We had four students head to New Zealand, one went to Canada and two to the UK. The students love getting out there and the feedback we get is always positive.”

Related: Longerenong College students get hands on experience

Second year Agribusiness Management and Agronomy student Jaime Vagg visited New Zealand’s South Island for her exchange. 

During the exchange, Ms Vagg spent time at a seed lab, dairy farm and sheep stud, among pother places. She said it was a great experience.

“Apart from the fact that it was an opportunity of a lifetime, I met so many great people within agriculture and built life-long friendships,” she said.

“My highlights were helping organise and set up the Suffolk stud ewe lamb auction, which was a huge success. Also the Suffolk stud farm tour was a great opportunity to travel around and see so many different farms.

“I would definitely recommend exchange to other students, especially New Zealand – it has a little bit of everything and everything is in a short travelling distance.”

She said she learnt a lot from her trip.

“They do things very differently over there to what I’m used to,” she said.

“Especially in the types of machinery that they use. There really weren’t too many similarities.”