VEG Education developed and delivered farm-specific safety inductions across Victoria, Western Australia, Northern Territory, South Australia and New Zealand to address the diverse and often complex safety challenges faced by horticultural businesses.
The program created customised induction packages tailored to each farm’s operations, infrastructure, workforce, and risks. These included:
- Site-specific video inductions filmed on each property, showing workers the actual layout, equipment, and procedures.
- Translations into multiple languages to overcome barriers for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) workers.
- Machinery use and operation training, ensuring workers understood safe handling of farm vehicles, harvesting equipment, and mobile plant.
- Safety pre-start checks to embed preventative risk management in daily routines.
- Task-specific job instructions, presented in clear, visual formats for ease of understanding.
By delivering training that reflected the real environment and workforce composition of each farm, VEG Education helped employers improve compliance, communication, and worker safety outcomes.
- Improved Safety Compliance: Farms met induction requirements more effectively, aligning with Work Health and Safety obligations and industry standards.
- Tailored Worker Training: Workers received instructions directly relevant to their workplace, improving clarity and reducing mistakes.
- Increased Accessibility: Multilingual resources broke down language barriers, making inductions accessible to CALD seasonal and migrant workers.
- Greater Worker Confidence: Workers felt more prepared and safer when starting tasks, reducing anxiety and building engagement.
- Machinery Safety Improvements: Standardised training on machinery operation and safety pre-starts reduced risks associated with mobile plant use.
- Consistency Across Workforce: All workers—regardless of literacy, language, or prior experience—received the same core safety messages.
- Time and Cost Savings for Employers: Video-based inductions reduced repetitive face-to-face briefing requirements while ensuring consistent delivery.
- Enhanced Safety Culture: Farms reported improved safety conversations, awareness, and proactive behaviour among staff.
- Positive Industry Feedback: The customised approach was well-received by employers and workers, providing a model for scalable, industry-wide adoption.
