The State Government has pledged a $250,000 investment, in partnership with the South Australian Forest Products Association (SAFPA), to launch a new forest and timber industries career campaign titled ‘This is Wood Work’.
The campaign has been designed as a powerful tool to promote the broad diversity of career pathways and job options within the forest and timber industries, ranging from forest management, to harvest and haulage, saw and wood production through to corporate services.
South Australia’s Limestone Coast is fast becoming the nation’s hub of forestry innovation – particularly with the establishment of a Forestry Centre of Excellence, the expansion of Tree Breeding Australia’s research facility and the electric log truck trial – and with that, the Wood Work campaign is designed to inform and attract job seekers about the multitude of forest industry jobs and careers.
The City of Mount Gambier will be decorated in ‘This is Wood Work’ branding, from billboards on the main street, to the back of buses, adverts in the newspaper, on radio and on social media, reaching the core demographic of school leavers and young people looking for meaningful, stable career options.
South Australian Forest Products Association (SAFPA) chief executive Nathan Paine said he was thrilled to have been involved with the future proofing campaign.
“This really is an exciting project because it is shining a spotlight on all the different and diverse jobs and careers in forestry,” he said.
“We are very excited about being able to showcase the industry to job seekers particularly here in Mount Gambier and the Limestone Coast.
“Over the next six weeks we will see social media being bombarded, particularly young job seekers and young people leaving school. We want to get into their feeds, we want them to think about careers and futures in the forest industries.
“We know there is need to decarbonise our economy and we also know that wood fibre is going to be one of the critical pathways to ensure that we decarbonise.”
Minister for Primary Industries, Regional Development and Forestry Industries Clare Scriven she was delighted to partner with industry and in particular SAFPA to be able to deliver the initiative.
“The South Australian Government is putting $250,000 and that’s because this is such a vibrant industry for our area here in the Limestone Coast,” she said.
“We want to see people who are tech savvy, who are skilled, who are environmentally driven because this is one of the most renewable, sustainable industries in our region.
“We want people to know the breadth and depth of different careers that are available and that includes everything from perhaps what people are used to seeing – being out in the forest or being in a mill – but through to AI and robotics because all of those technologies are a big part now of what this industry is.”
