Doing, not talking: Tackling the staff crisis that grips the industry (Part 2)

10 min read
Across the winter, TDN AusNZ will be addressing the industry’s staffing crisis from the perspectives of farms and stables, finding out what individual operators are doing to mitigate labour problems. In the second part of this series, we divert to education, an issue that’s exploded in importance in the last few years.

Cover image courtesy of Bronwen Healy

Earlier this week, in the first of our series on the staff crisis choking the industry, Toby Liston, a 17-year studmaster of Three Bridges Thoroughbreds, said his feedback over the years was that staff wanted training and education.

It wasn’t something that Liston plucked out of thin air. He had spent money and time on business coaches and advisors, all of whom had taught him to listen acutely to his staff.

“Any external training actually benefits us,” he said. “Staff come back with more knowledge and they’re hungrier. They’ve seen the industry from a different angle.”

For Liston, it’s a perspective ground out by mistakes and correction. When once he used to burn through staff as quickly as his farm was burning through him, now he has healthier protocols. There’s a five-day working week in place, and staff are encouraged to be educated and trained on the job.

Toby Liston | Image courtesy of Thoroughbred Breeders Victoria

It’s not a new revelation that workers want to feel qualified, but it’s become much more topical in the last few years that the horse industry’s labour force, be it stud staff or racing-stable employees, wants to upskill and feel qualified in something concrete.

As Liston said, “A love for the animal is not enough”. That is what brings people to the industry much of the time, but after that, there have to be reasons to stay.

Unskilled work?

Going back hundreds of years, people have worked with racehorses without any need of qualifications. It was one of those jobs, be it stable hand or trainer or exercise rider, that was all about experience.

Knowledge, as valuable as it was, was passed down readily without a thought to such a thing as formal training.

In a modern sense, they’d call it ‘unskilled work’. Although there was nothing unskilled about it, horse work didn’t require high-school certificates or tertiary qualifications. It didn’t ask for years of learning and it was therefore something that anyone could jump into, much like hospitality or construction work.

A yearling parading at the Inglis Melbourne complex

However, job satisfaction is important to people these days. Whereas the work-life balance used to tip favourably to the former, now it’s leaning heavily towards the latter.

Workers are making career choices around sociable hours, time off and family commitments, and, thanks to COVID in the last few years, things like working from home. Cost of living has become a huge issue.

In whatever career they choose, young people are being encouraged to consider these things and, as such, some of the questions getting bandied around by the industry are intense.

Why would a parent encourage their child into a job that demands a 3am start? Why would anyone want to sacrifice every Saturday at the races when there are other careers that pay better and offer more lifestyle? Why would anyone choose a career that is, by the definition of insurance, considered dangerous?

Why would a parent encourage their child into a job that demands a 3am start? Why would anyone want to sacrifice every Saturday at the races when there are other careers that pay better and offer more lifestyle? Why would anyone choose a career that is, by the definition of insurance, considered dangerous?

In some instances, these things haven’t stopped a lot of individuals from coming into the industry at an entry level and climbing the ladder into very prominent positions later on, but it doesn’t change the reality that there is a dearth of workers coming in.

Adding to this, personal ambition is a significant agenda.

Workers want avenues to upskill and opportunities for promotion, something that has been traditionally difficult in hands-on work, including track riding, stable duties and farm work. They also want to feel valued.

Hence the persistent conversation about education, that the industry needs to provide it for both people coming in and people already in.

Insurance companies consider working with thoroughbreds a ‘dangerous’ occupation

The pathways are there

Few people are as privy to this as Julianne Christopher, the executive officer for both Thoroughbred Breeders NSW (TBNSW) and Hunter Thoroughbred Breeders Association (HTBA).

For the best part of eight years, Christopher has been a vital cog in the industry’s education wheel in New South Wales, and she’ll tell you the education pathway is now paved in the state.

“In a way, COVID did us a bit of a favour,” she said, speaking to TDN AusNZ. “Eight years ago, farms were hesitant to take on trainees, and now I have a farm calling me every week to ask if I have one. Businesses are realising now that we are responsible for building our workforce and training the skilled workforce that we’re all looking for.”

“COVID did me a great favour... Businesses are realising now that we are responsible for building our workforce and training the skilled workforce that we’re all looking for.” - Julianne Christopher

Christopher’s eight years in this field bookend the COVID situation, and she has a unique perspective because of that.

“We were so reliant on visa workers that we weren’t training our own people,” she said. “COVID has highlighted that very clearly.

As the conversation about education has rattled on, much of it has been about an apparent lack of it. In fact, the truth is very different.

For many years now in New South Wales, the HTBA has worked alongside TBNSW on the Workforce Development Project, a program whose primary motivation has been to retain existing industry staff by way of training pathways and supporting newcomers.

Julianne Christopher, the executive officer of the TBNSW and HTBA | Image courtesy of Scone Horse Festival

Last year, the project ran its pilot program in the Hunter Valley, offering nationally accredited courses to over 200 participants, and it was a barnstorming success.

The second phase is already accepting expressions of interest, which opened in April.

“We had an enormous response to our pilot program and we’ve had an enormous response this time,” Christopher said. “We’re currently looking at the dates in July to make sure we have enough trainers to cover the amount of people that want training.”

The industry response to the Workforce Development Project has been immense, and while the pilot phase occurred just in the Hunter district, this time it’s going state wide. The proposal is that the course will be available in the Hunter Valley, but also in places like Wagga, Newcastle, Warwick Farm and the Southern Highlands.

But what exactly is it offering?

“It's a full suite,” Christopher said. “From high-school introductory programs all the way up to management level, there is a qualification offered to every level of progression. It’s a full pathway available now in New South Wales.”

“From high-school introductory programs all the way up to owning and running your own business, there is a qualification offered to every level of progression. A full pathway is available in New South Wales.” - Julianne Christopher

The nuts and bolts of the Workforce Development Plan are simple.

There are nationally accredited certificates in Emerging Supervisor, Foaling Night Watch, Horse Breeding and Leadership and Management. There is ‘Thoroughly Schooled’, the introductory program targeting high-school students, and all are designed to offer a replete pathway from entry-level horse work right up to running your own farm.

“You’ll hear people saying that we need education, but in New South Wales we’ve got it and we’re probably the only state that offers this amount of it to the existing workforce for breeders,” Christopher said. “We’ve only been able to really build on this for the last two to three years, to have that full suite, but it’s definitely up and running now.”

Hunter Thoroughbred Breeders Association offers an Irish National Stud Breeding Course scholarship each year

State or national?

The NSW Workforce Development Project kicked off in 2020. It’s a five-year plan that’s currently sitting in phase two and, in a way, COVID has been the best thing that could have happened to it. Crisis, by its very nature, brings heads together.

In normal times, there were seasonal workers and backpackers heading out to regional farms or hitting up city stables, but that stopped in 2020 and it could take a long time to return.

“It’s really important that people realise we are responsible for own skilled workforce, for attracting, training and retaining them,” Christopher said. “It’s our responsibility to do that in each state.”

“It’s really important that people realise we are responsible for own skilled workforce, for attracting them and retaining them. It’s our responsibility to do that in each state.” - Julianne Christopher

This state-based responsibility has been a bone of contention in the industry. There are many people who believe that a national approach is required, but that isn’t how things are run in a factionalised system.

“With the way that education and training works, if you want government support, you’ve got to go to each region and then you’ve got to go to your state,” Christopher said. “So education and training in the Commonwealth system works on a state-by-state basis.”

When it comes to a national approach, she said it absolutely needs to be there in regards to marketing the industry, to attract and inform the general public. But the groundwork and complicated details of government-supported education programs needs to remain state-based right now.

Taking ownership

The TBNSW and HTBA approach is just one example of training opportunities available to breeding-industry participants. There are others.

For years, Thoroughbred Breeders Australia (TBA) has been operating its highly successful and long-running Fast Track program, a 12-month traineeship that is a mix of practical experience and formal study, resulting in a nationally recognised Certificate III in Horse Breeding.

Lindy Maurice’s Thoroughbred Industry Careers (TIC) is one of the most valuable pathways into a profession in racing or breeding and, on a much larger scale, there is Godolphin Flying Start and nationwide TAFE courses.

Lindy Maurice, the chief executive officer at Thoroughbred Industry Careers

So why is there a continual outcry about lack of education in the industry?

“Everyone has a bit of ownership in this,” said John Sunderland, an industry figurehead who juggles his everyday role as manager of Woodlands Stud with historical input into this issue. Alongside Christopher, Sunderland has championed the cause of industry education for years in New South Wales.

“People are talking about not being able to find staff, and those staff not being able to progress,” he said. “But the pathways are there, from kids leaving school to work with horses right up to stud managers and farm owners.”

Like most people, Sunderland knows the rhetoric has kicked around for years, but in his eyes, some of the solutions are already there. There are pathways for upskilling and pathways for entry, so it’s a case of individual motivation to go out and find them.

John Sunderland (left) receiving the HTBA President's Award presented by Cameron Collins earlier this year | Image courtesy of the HTBA

Of course, many of these options tackle only a certain section of the industry. They won’t offer qualifications to track riders, for example, and there are other careers in the racing industry that are under-represented.

But they’re a start in a conversation that often shouts there are none, begging the question: are things really as bleak as they seem?

Doing, Not Talking Series
Thoroughbred Breeders NSW
Thoroughbred Breeders Australia
Hunter Thoroughbred Breeders Association
Julianne Christopher
John Sunderland