Cultivating Futures in Farming Mentor Program

This program provides young farmers or farm managers the opportunity to::

• Gain key financial, business and people management skills required to run a successful and professional farm business.
• Develop their business skills to become an effective manager and leader.
• Gain confidence in decision-making and improving farm management skills.
• Benchmark their business and management performance to review and improve.
• Develop strategies to build resilience and achieve their business goals.

• Receive coaching from experienced Pinion Advisory consultants to implement workshop learnings into key actions to improve farm businesses
• Benchmark your business and management performance to review and improve
• Gain/enhance key financial, business and people management skills required to run a successful and professional farm business
• Develop your business skills to become an effective manager and leader
• Gain confidence in decision-making to improve the sustainability of your farm business
• Connect with likeminded farmers and mentors to share ideas and experiences

The program will run from August 2024 until March 2025. Please note, there will be no program commitments during the harvest period, and webinar dates and times are flexible dependent upon group availability.

On successful application, participants are required to fulfil the following over the period of the program:

• Maintain regular contact with both their mentor (if applicable) and Pinion Advisory farm business consultants.
• Attend both the in-person workshops (in Birchip) and virtual webinars. 
• Demonstrate evidence of goal setting and actions taken as a result of the mentoring sessions. In addition, participants are expected to share learnings and experiences with other participants and provide feedback on the program as part of the evaluation process.
• Participants are encouraged to bring a mentor to the workshops. Ideally, your mentor will be someone with a strong relationship to you and your farm. Examples of a mentor may include your parent, existing farm manager, farm board personnel, or your farm business consultant or agronomist. Participants who are unable to acquire a suitable mentor are still able to attend the program.

Please note, optional meetings can be organised outside of the required sessions by participants, for one-on-one coaching with Pinion Advisory consultants.

Applicants must:

• Be aged 18-40 years at the time of application close date (August 7)
• Be working in a food and fibre business in Victoria at least three days per week for the past three months
• Have a minimum of 2 years' experience on-farm
• Reside in Victoria, and be an Australian citizen or permanent resident

• Applications will close on Wednesday 7 August.
• This program is FREE (usually valued at $4,000) and fully funded by the Farm Business Resilience Program.
• Successful applicants will be notified and required to sign a Letter of Agreement to accept their position.
• Places are limited.
• Click here to apply.