YOUNG agricultural industry stakeholders are being encouraged to nominate for an $8000 international travel award as part of the 2018 BBM Youth Support awards program.

BBM Youth Support is a charity which offers financial support to young people to travel overseas and develop their skills. The awards are open to stakeholders aged 16-23, and the successful applicants receive $8000 towards travel overseas, to learn more about their area of interest, and to then bring those skills back to Australia to develop their industry.

Agriculture is one of the program’s key award categories. The awards have been running since 1983, and many of its alumni have brought back skills and new perspectives to Australia, inspiring other young people to go out there and fulfil their potential.

Past awardees have gone on to develop family farms, bring new skills to their work on the land and start new businesses. 2010 awardee Tim Eyes (see short video featuring Tim below) went on to set up a consultancy business on the NSW Central Coast, where he consults to 25 farms and manages six. He credits the skills he learned in the UK on how small farms could generate higher returns as instrumental in the creation of his business.

“I was a BBM Youth Support awardee in 2010, and at the time I was studying at Tocal Agricultural College trying to decide the path I wanted to take in agriculture. I’m a beef cattle farm manager and consultant now, and going to the UK showed me the diversity of agriculture and what you can make viable. I run my own business and have been doing so since the day I got back from the UK, thanks to my BBM Youth Support Award. I’d highly recommend the award to any young person who wants a once in a life time opportunity,” he said.

The BBM Youth Support awards are designed to be a self-directed learning experience to give young people a chance to not only improve their professional development, but to grow in confidence and build their own aspiration for the future. Awardees bring this knowledge back to inspire others in their community to build a better future for Australia.

• This year’s award applications open on 31 May and close 31 July. Visit bbm.asn.au for more details

About BBM Youth:

The Big Brother Movement was founded in 1925 by Sir Richard Linton to facilitate migration of young men to Australia from the UK. Australia was in need of strong and willing young men seeking adventure and a new life away from home, in agriculture and other fields. The first group of more than 80 “little brothers”, as they became known, sailed from England on the Jervis Bay arriving in Australia on December 14, 1925.

In 1983, with the termination of the sponsorship scheme due to changing migration rules, the farm assets were sold, and the funds invested. These funds enabled the organisation to evolve into its current form, BBM Youth Support.

In this short video, previous awardee Tim Eyes shares his experiences from his award