To support the growth of Australia’s agriculture industry, Skills Insight is investigating how to strengthen the attraction of agriculture careers by mapping pathways for cross-functional careers with qualifications in the Agriculture, Horticulture and Conservation and Land Management Training Package. This project is also key to identifying a potential agricultural trade qualification pathway.
Click across the tabs to view active and completed project stages. Consultation takes place at every stage of the project.
Agriculture offers a wide range of exciting and dynamic career opportunities. Like many industries, the pathways people take within agriculture are not always linear. While two people may begin their journeys working on a farm, one might eventually become a farm owner, while the other moves on to teach agricultural skills in a registered training organisation (RTO). Along the way, they may have worked as farm managers, directors for agricultural organisations, farm equipment technicians, or in aquaponics or AgTech.
Understanding these varied career pathways is crucial to supporting industry recruitment, retention, and attraction strategies. It is also a key step in identifying the best option for an agricultural trade apprenticeship pathway that reflects the diversity and potential of the sector.
Skills Insight is building a workforce development framework for the agricultural industry. This initiative aims to overcome challenges in promoting and defining career pathways, aligning job roles with qualifications, and enhancing skills and training delivery.
Purpose
This project will explore and share insights into agricultural career pathways and provide valuable knowledge for the industry, particularly around job promotion. It will also play a pivotal role in shaping the development of an agricultural trade apprenticeship program.
Agricultural career pathway mapping aims to bolster the appeal of the agriculture industry in the eyes of job seekers, improving visibility and understanding of careers in agriculture. Career mapping also aims to provide clear, accessible pathways that attract diverse talent pools, supporting workplace diversity and inclusion.
Through stakeholder consultation and analysis of the agricultural aligned qualifications within the AHC Training Package and their alignment to various job titles, the project team will investigate the cross-functional skills that can carry workers across various job roles and sectors throughout their career.
Stakeholders will also be consulted on the potential to develop consistent and appealing job titles that accurately reflect the depth and variety of work, enhancing industry’s profile, bringing them in line with other VET workforce trades, such as plumber, carpenter, electrician or auto-mechanic.
Objectives
The project aligns with the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) 2030 Roadmap, which emphasises the need for clear career pathways to attract and develop skilled workers, and supports the objectives of the Jobs and Skills Councils (JSC) Program Guidelines, particularly in mapping, promoting, and monitoring career pathways across sectors.
Design
The project will investigate agricultural job titles and career pathways currently in place by reviewing the National Training Register with support from the National Careers Institute.
A project Steering Committee will be established to review the career maps for potential job title improvements. The committee will also identify where the industry can utilise this work. The committee will include representation from the National Farmer’s Federation and the Australian Worker’s Union, and other representatives that were involved in the Feasibility Study for an Ag Trade Apprenticeship. At least one First Nations organisation will be invited to the committee, as Indigenous enterprises and communities are also developing culturally appropriate agricultural occupation pathways.
From February to May 2025, stakeholders – including peak and industry bodies, unions, RTOs, First Nations organisations and other interested stakeholders – will be called upon to consult on mapping career pathways for agricultural occupations and associated qualifications. They will also help identify skills gaps and misalignments between on-site job practices and the skills within the national qualifications.
The mapping process will include all AQF level qualifications with job titles and transferability of skills from one job to another job relating to:
Career resources, such as those published by AgriFutures Australia, will also be assessed for their relevance to this project. Jobs and Skills Australia will be advised of activity progress. At the end of the project, Skills Insight will submit a report on the career mapping, observations and recommendations to the Department of Education and Workplace Relations.
Project team
Susie Falk
Project Manager
Skills Insight
[email protected]
Andrew Horgan
Stakeholder Engagement Manager Skills Insight
[email protected]
Timeline
Skills Insight is consulting with agricultural industry bodies, employers, unions, RTOs, First Nations organisations and other interested stakeholders on improving the visibility of agricultural career pathways.
Insights from these consultations will help provide guidance for how career pathways can reflect current and emerging workforce requirements. The insights will also provide crucial information for developing a potential Certificate III agricultural trade qualification.
The work to map agricultural career pathways includes all job roles and titles, whether linked to an AHC Training Package qualification or commonly used in workplaces, and transferability of skills from one job to another job relating to agriculture, agribusiness, agronomy, dairy, feedlot, horticulture (production, protected, medicinal cannabis or otherwise), irrigation, livestock, permaculture, pest management, rural operations and merchandising, shearing and wool and viticulture.
Next steps
The project team is currently collating the data and insights gathered through a series of stakeholder workshops held between 1 April and 9 May 2025 to identify common themes. These findings will be discussed with the project Steering Committee at the end of May. Following that, project documentation will be drafted and made available for broad consultation on this webpage.
Consultation to date
A steering committee has been put together to guide the project. A series of consultation workshops were also held in-person and online to collect input on existing job roles, explore how job titles could better reflect the appeal of agricultural work, and support the mapping of career pathways. Thank you to all the stakeholders who generously shared their time, insights and experiences. These conversations highlighted the diverse pathways into agricultural careers. While some enter the industry with a clear intent, for many others a specific job opportunity leads to the realisation their interests and passions align with agriculture.
Previous in-person sessions
Previous online sessions
A key objective of this project is to establish consistent job titles that reflect the responsibilities and appeal of various roles, helping stakeholders promote career opportunities.
Consultation and research to date show that job titles, levels, and pathways vary widely across sub-sectors, production systems, regions, and employers. This inconsistency can be confusing — particularly for people from non-agricultural backgrounds — and can make it harder to navigate career opportunities in agriculture.
A draft job classification model has been developed from consultation and research. It aims to provide industry with a tool to promote careers by aligning existing frameworks around transparent criteria, primarily the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) and Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA) descriptors.
We are seeking your feedback on the proposed model, from 19 September to 7 October 2025, via the embedded feedback form which we hope is quick and easy to complete.
Feedback requested
We encourage your feedback on the on the six proposed levels and generic titles shown in the model below:
1. Farm labourer
2. Assistant Agriculturist/Horticulturist
3. Agriculturist/Horticulturist
4. Agricultural/Horticultural Production Supervisor
5. Agricultural/Horticultural Production Manager
6. Agribusiness Consultant or Agribusiness Executive Manager
Proposed job classification model
Download a detailed version of the model.
Typical job role | Sample of current titles | Proposed job classification with sector example titles |
Closely supervised labourerdoing structured/defined repetitive tasks. |
| |
Supervised semi-skilled workerthat complete routine tasks, and solves basic problems. | 2. Assistant Agriculturist / Horticulturist
| |
Autonomous highly skilled trade level workerthat plans and completes own work and solves problems. | 3. Agriculturist / Horticulturist
| |
Autonomous highly skilled supervisorresponsible for a team. May also be a specialist in part of the production system. | 4. Agricultural / Horticultural Production Supervisor
| |
Managerresponsible for the enterprise or part of the enterprise. | 5. Agricultural / Horticultural Production Manager
| |
General or Executive Managerwith overall responsibility for the enterprise. May also be a specialised consultant, technical manager or researcher. Reflects: | 6. Agribusiness Consultant
6. Agribusiness Executive Manager
|
Feedback and consultation to date
To better understand current agricultural career pathways and identify opportunities to improve their visibility, Skills Insight conducted a series of stakeholder workshops between April and May 2025. Participants included employers, industry associations, unions, and registered training organisations (RTOs).
Consultations focussed on:
Insights from consultation informed the development of an Ag Qualification Career Mapping document, summarising the relationships between AHC Training Package qualifications, industry sectors, job titles and their related AQF level.
From 13 June to 23 July, broad stakeholder input on the Ag Qualification Career Mapping document was collected via the Feedback Hub.
The Ag Qualification Career Mapping document looked at qualifications that span the following industries:
This stage has not yet commenced.
At the finalisation stage, final checks are conducted and the outcomes of the project are submitted to the Department for consideration. Following this, outcomes are published or enacted.