Vineyard manager gets a taste for TasTAFE

Vineyard manager Jordan Holliday says completing TasTAFE’s Horticulture Supervisor Training has helped him gain new skills and become more organised at work.

Jordan is the Vineyard Manager of Kate Hill Wines.  He has worked in the industry for 14 years but the Horticulture Supervisor Training was his first formal training in the industry.

Jordan moved to Kate Hill Wines two years ago, and the door to further education was opened when his employer suggested he do the course.

While Jordan has built a successful career through on-the-job learning and practical experience, he said one major benefit of studying at TasTAFE was getting more experience in things that are not normally discussed in day-to-day work on the vineyard.

“(Learning about) work health and safety practices was really good. There’s a lot of things people might not think of, it was good to learn more about that as a whole.” Jordan said.

As the manager of the vineyard, Jordan is responsible for making sure business runs as smoothly as possible, and said his management of the winery has only benefitted from his experience in the course.

“With the scheduling and costing of things, the course opened my eyes a lot more to the organisation required to run the business. I’m not making decisions based on a whim anymore, I’m looking a lot more into the other details and drawing up plans… It’s been really, really helpful for me and my employer”.

It had been quite a while since he had studied, but Jordan said his teacher, Penny, made the experience easy.

“Penny in particular was really easy to get along with and very knowledgeable, she made everything easy to understand. The classes were fantastic, even some of the drier subjects, she still made it quite fun to learn about.”

Now that he’s got the taste for it, Jordan says he has overcome any concerns he may have had and is excited to complete more study with TasTAFE – next up is his Certificate III in Viticulture.

“For someone who hasn’t been to school in a long time, it can be a little daunting to come back, but having the experience that I did has made me really want to push and get even more qualified where I can.”