26 enthusiastic rural women from north east Victoria and southern New South Wales, recently graduated from the Inspiring Farming Women Course organized by Riverine Plains Inc.
The five-workshop course was developed to further the business, development, networking and leadership skills of the participating farming women.
The sessions were facilitated by Cathy McGowan from Catherine McGowan Consulting, Cheryl Graham from Farminganswers and Dr Kristy Howard from Inspiring Excellence.
The project was supported by funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry under its Australia’s Farming Future initiative.
Course facilitator Ms Cathy McGowan AO said that the program had a strong focus on networking to increase the confidence of rural women as well as providing practical business support. She said the course specifically looked at aspects of strategic planning, benchmarking, goal setting, time management, marketing and communication, as well as self development.
Participants at the Yarrawonga based workshops came from as far as Holbrook in the north to Tooborac in the south and represented a diverse range of industries including cropping/grain, cattle, sheep, dairy, pigs and horticulture.
“The women who attended came away with a better understanding of just how important we are to our own farming businesses and that the role we play is vital” said Cath Godde, a participant from Culcairn. “As a group, I can say we came away with more confidence and optimism in both ourselves and the future of farming in our region. Overall I found the course very rewarding and I would like to recommend it to all farming women – it is truly inspiring,” added Cath.
An important part of the course was the completion of individual projects which enabled the participants to put into practice some of the skills they had learnt. In presenting the certificates to the graduates, Riverine Plains Inc Chairman, Andrew Russell, said that he was personally inspired by their stories and the projects they had already undertaken. He congratulated the group on their significant contribution to rural businesses and for their involvement in the program.
The course participants have formed three smaller peer support groups and will continue to meet regularly in the future.
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