The Cotton Research and Development Corporation approached the MacIntyre Valley Cotton Growers Association (MVCGA) to undertake a human capacity project to receive a $10,000 grant. As a result of the long drought in the late 2000’s and the mining boom the local cotton industry has found it hard to attract young people to select the industry as a career. A succession plan is needed for the cotton industry to replace those people who have left the industry because of the drought or who are at or near retirement age.

The MVCGA executive committee decided that the money would be best invested on expanding the pushing the boundaries program. The first pushing the boundaries program was developed in 2000 under SILO (Schools Industry Links Outreach) through the Goondiwindi Training and Technology (GTT) centre, the Goondiwindi State High School and the MVCGA. Funding first came from the Commonwealth Government via the Australian Student Training Foundation (ASTF, to become ECEF soon after) and the NFF.

After engaging the Goondiwindi High School the MVCGA discovered that there was a negative perception about the cotton industry as a career choice for students. Teachers and parents perception was that there were long hours and poor work conditions and poor salaries in the cotton industry. Students also had little understanding on the wide range of careers available in the cotton industry, from scientists, agronomists, sellers, bankers and farm managers.

The MVCGA engaged the students through a number of means which included the pushing the boundaries program, the high school agricultural immersion day, Queensland government gateway to agriculture project. Once engaged the teachers and students saw have diverse the cotton industry is and how many jobs are available as a career.

The pushing the boundaries program key outcome is to increase the number of young students selecting the cotton industry as a career, it has been hard to gauge the success of the program so far. Since engaging the school and building a strong relationship the MVCGA has seen an increase in the interest in the cotton industry. This has been helped by the two record crops the industry has seen and the record price for cotton.

The completion of this project has shown that the industry needs engage students in schools at a young age to allow them to make a correction to the cotton industry and discover the career opportunities. There is an opportunity for other CGA in other regions to introduce the program into their high school. There is also an opportunity to keep working with the students who have undertaken the project to keep mentoring and showing them other aspects of the cotton industry.