By
Ann-Maree Moodie
Ann-Maree
Moodie talks to 29-year-old Anita Paulsen, co-principal of Tasmanian
seafood processor Salty Seas, whose apprenticeship gave her the
opportunity to run her own business.
After I
left school, I tried all sorts of jobs. I
worked in real estate for 10 months in Canberra, and lived in
Queensland for a while where I worked for tourist resorts. But
I came back to St Helens, on the east coast of Tasmania, because
it's one of the most beautiful spots on the globe. The local economy,
however, is highly dependent on the fishing industry and tourism
and, as a result, there is very high youth unemployment. Not surprisingly,
when I returned at the age of 24, I had to work three part-time
jobs.
Around about
this time, the local newspaper ran an advertisement for traineeships
in seafood aquaculture.
I thought
it was a really good opportunity. I've always been interested
in fish and fishing, I used to travel down to the east coast of
Tasmania for holidays to go fishing with my grandfather. I just
like seafood. Fish are fantastic. They're great to eat and fun
to catch. I love being out in saltwater. I also love the challenge
of the sea; it's unpredictable, fresh and fairly unknown. It's
also something that we have very little control over, and I find
that a challenge.
The traineeship
was for 12 months at the end of which the 10 trainees would be
awarded a Shellfish Aquaculture Certificate 2. The range of courses
was diverse, theoretical and practical. We did certificate courses
in using equipment like a forklift and a chainsaw, we learned
about navigation, first aid and safety at sea, as well as basic
business skills. The best part was having the opportunity to apply
your new-found skills and knowledge at work.
The traineeship
was through the Beacon Foundation which is funded by the private
sector with some government support. It was established to address
youth unemployment and youth training, and it came to St Helens
in response to the high youth unemployment in the area.
At the same
time, there was a debate in the community about the large wild
oysters growing in Georges Bay. The oysters were introduced as
part of a CSIRO project to see if they could grow here, but they
were taking over areas of recreational use, such as the beaches.
This was quite dangerous because these types of oysters are very
large - they can grow up to 40 centimetres long - and their shells
are sharp. The debate was centred on how best to remove them from
the bay and the beaches, and whether there was a potential to
sell them.
Training
Program
The Beacon
Foundation decided to use the wild oyster problem as a project
to redress youth unemployment. It formed relationships with the
oyster growers and other members of the industry. St Helens has
unique growing conditions for oysters and we have a very active
oyster-farming sector with five or six farms in allocated harvest
areas in the bay. The program originally intended to harvest the
oysters and ship them to Sydney to the Chinese market. The first
few batches drew a negative response. The shells were hard to
open and the taste was very strong. It's like comparing a glass
of claret and a glass of pinot noir.
As a result,
the Beacon Foundation adapted its program, so that the co-operative
became a processor as well as a harvester, and this was called
St Helens Shellfish Producers. This meant adding new components
to the traineeship. We were out on the dinghies a couple of days
a week harvesting, and then back at St Helens doing the processing
two days a week, depending on the training schedule which required
us to be in the classroom for a certain period of each week. At
the end of the program, I was nominated as Trainee of the Year
and took out the Australian Trainee of the Year. There was a lot
of publicity surrounding the award and I was required to do a
lot of travelling. But I was also pleased to see a lot of the
young men from the area who had also done the traineeship develop
their self-confidence and have a sense of achievement, as well
as the skills to promote themselves.
We spent
the 12 months after the traineeship working for the oyster farmers
who had attempted to continue the achievements of the program
by improving the processing, and selling the oysters. They formed
a co-operative which ran the business for these 12 months. The
manager of the co-op was Lex Weekes, who employed me as the assistant
manager, which involved overseeing the production and helping
with some of the paperwork.
At the end
of this period, the farmers decided to return to harvesting and
were going to close down the co-op. It was then that Lex approached
me to be a co-partner in the business, which is now called Salty
Seas. Our business is described as a seafood processing and live
fish facility. Our products include wild dive-harvested clams,
periwinkles, angasi oysters, wild mussels, giant pacific oysters,
cultured pacific oysters and mussels, scalefish, (including mowong
and wrasse), and stripy trumpter, garfish and flathead in season.
We are now
one of Tasmania's largest buyers and handlers of live fish which
we fly direct to Sydney. The quality of our product was recently
acknowledged when we received a 2002 Jaguar Award for Excellence
(in association with Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine), in
the primary produce category.
Other trainees
in my program went on to become leading hands, but I wanted to
be a manager. I've always seen myself as a businesswoman; I've
always wanted to be the boss. The opportunity to become self-employed
in this region was also very attractive and the bonus was to be
able to work around fish.
When we took
over this business, we already had a foundation to work from -
we were already familiar with the product, we had markets established,
infrastructure, and networks with the oyster farmers. We had a
lot of the real guts of the business already in place, without
which it would have taken us two or three years to get to where
we are today.
In this
business, every day is different. We are dealing with a lot of
people - divers, fishermen, and government bodies. I'm also involved
with a lot of local communities associated with the industry,
and I'm secretary of the Tasmanian Commercial Divers Group.
Broad
Skills
If a young
person came to me for advice about becoming an apprentice or a
trainee, I'd say 'go for it'. The great thing about these programs
is that you get paid for becoming educated. It's not a huge pay
- I took a drop in pay when I become a trainee - but the skills,
the networking and the opportunities, are worth it.
In my traineeship,
I completed several certificate courses, but I also gained a lot
of business skills through courses such as small business management,
computer training and learning to write a business plan, which
is all knowledge that can be transferred into other industries.
So, my other piece of advice would be not to expect to necessarily
end up in the industry in which you've done your training.
We have
three core staff and we'd like to extend their training in areas
such as food safety. Lex and I have just finished our Train the
Trainer Level 4 for workplace assessment. The intention is to
be able to on- train staff.
I'd like
to see them accredited, especially if they'd like to work somewhere
else in the future. If they went to work on an orange farm, for
example, they'd be able to apply for a supervisor's job as opposed
to a picker's job.
In the immediate
future, we will continue to streamline what we're doing now. We'll
continue to diversify, but not at the rate of the last two years.
I intend to be here for a long time.
