Graduates from a prison horticulture training program are helping regional businesses

Graduates from a horticulture training program at a minimum security prison are proving to be great employees for regional businesses in WA.

Transcript

00:00 The harvest is over, but in the golden hills of Mount Barker, there's still work to do.

00:07 You don't want the fruit too high up, and we like to leave two buds.

00:11 With thousands of vines to prune, one of the biggest challenges is finding enough workers.

00:16 With the mines in competition with us, payment-wise we can't compete.

00:22 So locally and backpacker-wise, very difficult at the moment.

00:27 The solution for this producer, a local prison.

00:30 Most of them have got chainsaw licences, tractor licences, excavator licences, exactly what

00:38 you need on an agricultural property.

00:40 And we've taken two prisoners every year for the last six years now.

00:44 Puddle Up Prison Farm has been training workers for 14 years.

00:48 It's a full working prison farm that supports industries like farming, market gardens, mechanic,

00:54 we've got a maintenance section, a full working kitchen.

00:58 The intent is for them to actually continue on with that employment post-release.

01:01 I've done Cert 2 in agriculture, and I've just signed up to start Cert 3.

01:06 The program is building a reputation for providing reliable workers for primary producers.

01:11 The agriculture industry, as everyone will tell you, is screaming out for workers, and

01:17 we would expect that our people would be able to fill those roles admirably.

01:22 A sentence helping to relieve industry shortages.

01:24 [BLANK_AUDIO]