AFGRI Equipment welcomed its latest draft of service technicians and parts interpreters with a tour of its head office at Guildford followed by a three-day residential apprentice and trainee induction at Muresk Institute, Northam.
This year marked the largest intake in the history of the traineeship program and the first live-in camp with 38 inductees aged from 15 to 32 years travelling from Albany and Esperance in the south, Geraldton in the north and Narembeen and Lake Grace to the east.
- Subscribers have access to download our free app today from the App Store or Google Play
While working based at one of the company's 19 branches Statewide, service technicians (largely agricultural machinery diesel mechanics) will complete a four year Certificate 3 in Agriculture which combines units taught by career lecturers from TAFE at the company's own training facility at Moora, along with technical expertise and hands-on, in field learning from AFGRI's own team of specialist staff.
Parts technicians will study a two-year parts interpretation course and with 20 per cent of the company's total sales coming from parts, they clearly have an important role to play.
AFGRI general manager aftermarket Brad Forrester and training administrator HR, Emma Johansen who run the program, said it was an enormous opportunity for the apprentices to join a company with the size and diversity to offer significant career opportunities.
"A ticket with John Deere is really a ticket to the world," Mr Forrester said.
"You will be an in demand commodity with skills recognised wherever you go.
"But it's also a great opportunity for us to learn from you by listening to your input and feedback.
"So value what you bring as a team member as well as your skills."
Mr Forrester said AFGRI owed enormous thanks to John Deere for its input and support of the program, which so far had seen 128 apprentices signed up since 2020.
"We are very lucky to have with us today two of John Deere's territory customer support managers in Ben Suffield who oversees the construction and forestry division for Australia and New Zealand from a base in New Zealand and Chris Weideman, who is relocating to WA from Queensland to manage the Ag (agricultural) and Turf side of the business here," he said.
Speaking to the group, Mr Suffield said John Deere was the United States of America's (USA's) fifth oldest corporation and renowned for being an innovator since its founding father John Deere, a blacksmith, registered the business 186 years ago in 1837.
"It is now a Fortune 500 company ranked at number 84 in the list of top 500 companies in the US with more than 75,600 employees globally across three main tiers of business, production and precision ag, small ag and turf, and construction and forestry," Mr Suffield said.
Currently 41 per cent of its business is from the production and precision equipment sector, but construction and forestry at 29pc is a huge growth area for John Deere, especially since its US$5 billion purchase of German construction, road building and aggregate handling equipment company Wirtgen.
"Across the board though, what's most exciting for everyone here is what's happening with autonomy and electrification which is coming faster than anyone could have predicted," Mr Suffield said.
Where once there was a biggest is best mentality, particularly with regard to agricultural machines and equipment, now it was much more about working smarter with more intelligent equipment to help farmers be more profitable but in an environmentally sustainable way.
"We got as big as we could get with these machines, now we are moderating and innovating using things like artificial intelligence and machine learning," he said.
"What we learn in the next three years will be greater than what we learnt in the last 20 years."
Mr Weideman said with world population predicted to hit nine billion by 2050, food production would need to double to feed them and that would require significant innovation.
"We have a goal that by 2025, 75pc of all our machines will be fully connected (central computer linked) so much of your work particularly for diagnostics and programming will be done remotely rather than in the field," Mr Weideman said.
"It sounds complicated but Deere's platforms are designed from the operator's perspective, are easy to use and as part of the team you have plenty of backup support behind you.
"And with that we will be providing the parts to keep our customers running - and fast.
"Getting parts was a challenge through COVID, but we encouraged our dealers to hold lots of stock and last year we chartered our own ship, filled half with parts and half with equipment."
Central to John Deere's emphasis on customer service and supply was its Australia and New Zealand Distribution Centre (ANZDC), the Melbourne-based parts warehouse supplying 340 dealer locations across the two nations in both ag and turf and construction and forestry, through four shifts operating 24 hours a day including Saturdays.
"Our customers expect a lot of us, so we have to deliver," Mr Weideman said.
"We judge our performance against their expectations of us and on past performance, not against competitors."
"You are the face of John Deere and of AFGRI," Mr Suffield added.
READ MORE MACHINERY NEWS:
"You uphold the standards of the company and the brand and for many of our customers you are their point of contact so you in turn set their experience.
"Be Deere proud and Deere humble."
TYLER COATES
SIXTEEN-year old Tyler Coates from Esperance was the second youngest at the residential camp.
The self-confessed tomboy grew up motorbiking, camping and tinkering with cars with her dad and brother and was loving getting her teeth into something "agricultural, useful and outdoors".
"We were all pretty obsessed with cars," Ms Coates said.
"My dad's a light vehicle mechanic and we used to build cars together for my brother to race.
"When I told my mum I wanted to leave school after year 10 she said I better get a job.
"I'd done work experience at a dealership so I went and dropped my resume in to four places on a Friday afternoon and Snags (AFGRI Esperance manager Michael Perry) rang me up first thing Monday morning to come in for an interview.
"I already knew a few of the AFGRI guys through playing football and everyone has been accepting.
"It makes no difference that I am a girl, I'm just a mechanic who is there to work like everyone else."
ABBY HODDER
MUKINBUDIN-based Abby Hodder started her AFGRI association two years ago as part of a school-based program.
"I wasn't very scholastic so having the opportunity to go to school three days a week and do a hands-on trade for two days a week really helped me," Ms Hodder said.
"I grew up in Kalgoorlie but we (the family) moved to Mukinbudin and I love the community spirit there.
"Living in the country is definitely where I want to be.
"I did work experience at AIM (now AFGRI) and there are so many opportunities in this industry.
"I want to finish my apprenticeship, build my technical skills and hopefully become a master technician one day," Ms Hodder said.
SIMON FRANKLIN
TRAINEE parts interpreter Simon Franklin, who grew up on a hobby farm at Merredin, has been working in the parts department at AFGRI head office in Guildford for three months.
"It's really busy, very hands-on and I have enjoyed seeing people from my hometown coming in," Mr Franklin said.
"Agriculture is an essential industry - we need it.
"There's plenty of room for growth and lots of pathways for career opportunities with John Deere and AFGRI being such solid, reliable companies.
"I am really looking forward to helping customers more as I finish my two full years as a parts interpreter.
"The other great thing is how many young people are involved in this industry and at AFGRI and being able to meet everyone here."
