While South Africa continues to battle youth unemployment, agricultural recruitment specialist Lona Odendaal has secured 27 internships in the last 15 years within the fruit industry. More than half of these students have gone on to complete graduate programmes and secure work within the industry.
What is her recipe for success? She is passionate and cares about everyone who crosses her path. Also, the individual attention and care that Odendaal puts into every single applicant are what sets her apart.
For as long as she can remember, Odendaal has been involved in adult education and life skills. Fifteen years ago, she started doing training on farms and packhouses in the Western Cape and then got involved in community development.
During this time, she helped a final-year agricultural student from Cape Peninsula University of Technology to find a place he could fulfil his practical year in order to graduate. This sparked widespread interest from other students who reached out to her to assist them in finding internships.
“That is when I realised there is a big need from the student’s perspective. Especially those that do not come from a farm or do not necessarily have a link with the farm but need practical experience. I also found that there were quite a few farms that were looking for new potential to be developed,” says Odendaal.
At first, Odendaal channelled the programme through the Koue Bokkeveld Learning Centre. However, after some changes at the Western Cape-based centre that was no longer possible. She did not want to abandon the programme and, instead, struck up a partnership with Hortgro, the deciduous fruit industry body.
Odendaal now acts as a service provider and runs the programme on behalf of Hortgro. The internship and mentorship programme is organised by Kutsha (meaning “new recruit” in isiXhosa) and funded by Hortgro.
Striving for the perfect placement
Where a student is placed is very important as it will affect the outcome of their careers.
“My recipe for success was to make a good placement and not to just place any student on any farm but get to know how the farm works and their values and character and to try and find a student who will fit in,” explains Odendaal.
She also needs to find a midway between the expectations of the farm and the student. And that is where Frikkie Jacobs brings the right balance. As the production manager at Bo-Radyn’s Queen Anne farm, outside Villiersdorp, he has mentored five young agriculturists since 2018.
The story of how the internship came about starts with Jacobs’ own journey of establishing himself in the industry. Jacobs recalls that when he left college and started out as a junior in the industry, it was particularly challenging to receive guidance and information from his superior.
“I wanted to grow, and I couldn’t do that without people wanting to help me,” he explains.
He vowed that if he ever had the opportunity to guide people, especially young people who wanted to grow within the industry, he would rise to the challenge, never withhold information, and help develop their knowledge as fast as possible.
Jacobs’ first intern was Johan Coetzee, someone he knew from an early age. Jacobs ran into Coetzee at a symposium in 2017. At the time Coetzee was a student a Cape Peninsula University of Technology in search of an internship. On the spur of the moment, Jacobs told him that if he was unsuccessful in finding a placement, he was prepared to mentor him.
‘Training experts of the future’
Mentoring Coetzee turned out to be a huge success and other students followed. Most of them were placed by Odendaal. Although she reviews each candidate’s CV, Jacobs says he prefers also to interview and select students.
“I asked myself – what are we trying to achieve with the internship,” says Jacobs. The purpose of the internship is to have the students be so prepared and well-versed that they can work on any farm in the country at a junior managerial level.
Jacobs’ goal is to empower them with the necessary skills to fulfil their roles. “We are busy training experts of the future,” he adds.
His first three interns, Johan Coetzee, Gerswin Hill and Sive Hobe, went on to complete their advanced diplomas in agriculture after their mentorship. All of them have been permanently employed by Queen Anne.
“The three did so well that we did not want to lose them and lucky for them, there were positions available within the company,” says Jacobs.
Hill and Hobe competed in the Western Cape Prestige Agri-Worker of the Year competition. In the Villiersdorp area, Hobe came first and Hill second in the category for junior production managers.
- This article, written by Kyra-Kay Rensburg, was originally written for Hortgro and republished with its permission.
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