To acknowledge Nutrien Timboon’s support of our NCFH Gear Up for Ag workshop, and as a timely reminder of the importance of farm and workplace safety, we invited Tim Nowell, the Branch Manager of Nutrien Ag Solutions into the Year 9/10 AgHort classroom. Tim described his career pathway starting as a light engine mechanic with a local Kawasaki dealer, through to Ford Motor Company as a Group Leader in the stamping plant, owning his own livestock transport business, then working in quarries and mines, managing the construction of the Western District Livestock Exchange through to his current role. As these roles involved managing change, redevelopment and overseeing work teams, workplace safety was high on his radar, especially following the death of a team member in a mining accident. He is reminded of this incident daily and this unnecessary fatality has prompted him to take a lead on workplace safety in the organisations he is involved in. Tim stressed the importance of building a culture of safety by ensuring that ‘if something isn’t safe, make it safe and if you can’t make it safe, don’t do it’. By providing examples from his life and incidents that impacted his colleagues, students learnt that it was important to report near miss and incidents as these could escalate to a major injury or fatality. The significance of not taking shortcuts or not concentrating on a task was emphasized as was the importance of using safe facilities or refusing to work in unsafe conditions. Tim also spoke about the importance of mental health and wellbeing including starting conversations with the TradeMutt shirts, supporting Dolly’s Dream, RUOK and understanding people. This very powerful lesson resonated with all of the students and we are extremely grateful for Tim’s passion for keeping people safe and his candour and honesty in this important message for our young people and their families. . Comments are closed.
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April 2024
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