Expressions of interest have opened for around 1500 seasonal roles newly on offer across South Australia and western Victoria to work the 2021/22 grain harvest with Viterra.
Each year, Viterra significantly increases the size of its workforce to help bring in the season’s grain. The big joint effort with the community and harvest employees makes a significant difference to ensure local grain gets to markets, both in Australia and overseas.
Viterra Operations Manager Michael Hill says harvest jobs attract a range of people who all benefit in different ways from the work.
‘‘It provides the opportunity for people to gain work experience in their first job, earn additional money in a short space of time, or the potential to upskill and stay with the business in an ongoing role,’’ Michael says.
‘‘We have many people return to do more harvests with us as they find the experience so rewarding. We receive a great deal of positive feedback on the fast pace of harvest, getting experience in a number of areas and taking on new responsibilities, and the opportunity to meet new people from a range of places.”
Viterra’s seasonal workforce plays a critical role in providing a high level of service to growers delivering their grain. The range of interesting and rewarding positions include general grain handling which involves operating equipment and machinery to unload grain from vehicles, bunker operators to direct traffic and unload grain into bunker storage, and weighbridge operators who record the weight of trucks when they arrive and leave, and enter it into a computer system. Full training is provided so no experience is necessary.
“Jobs are provided in a supportive team environment with the potential to travel with the harvest to work at different sites. There are roles to work across Viterra’s 55 sites from October through to January, with times depending on the season’s condition,” says Michael.