OneFortyOne New Zealand scholarship recipients: Shannon Rutherford, Christoph Riedel and Danielle Inglis
OneFortyOne New Zealand offers an annual NZ$4000 grant for the course of each student’s four-year degree program, as well as work experience during semester breaks throughout the year and during the university summer holiday. Scholarships help with the costs of studying towards a forestry degree and to open up pathways to employment within the industry. Many of the scholarship students go on to achieve successful and rewarding careers within the company itself. Source: Timberbiz
Christoph Riedel was a OneFortyOne New Zealand scholarship recipient in 2014 who then went on to secure a graduate role with the company after completing his studies. During his post-graduation year with the company, Mr Riedel worked with multiple logging crews, worked as part of a silviculture crew, collaborated on internal business improvement projects, completed research projects, and contributed to the company’s environmental management and stewardship work.
“The graduate working year is very much an overall look at the business, and perfect for students who finish their degree and may not be sure what they want to do within the industry,” he said. “It allows you to try out different areas within the business, meet the staff, build relationships, and create rapport with potential mentors.”
After a year working as a graduate, Mr Riedel successfully applied for a permanent role as a Forest Operations Planner. In his role, he plans and manages silviculture operations in the OneFortyOne New Zealand forest estate in Nelson Tasman.
It’s a varied position, including planning and management responsibility of multiple silviculture crews, their quality control programs, estate road and firefighting asset maintenance, forest health and pest animal control, as well as project work such as providing drone training for other staff members.
“The company is very supportive, and I spend part of each year presenting at schools, university evenings, career shows, and holding field trips for interested students, all to promote opportunities within the forestry industry,” Mr Riedel said.
“I’m also fortunate to be a regional leader for the top of the South Island New Zealand Future Foresters, a group of young professionals within the industry that are focused on building a network of motivated early career foresters.
“Within the group we actively encourage professional development and networking and do a lot of work promoting forestry as a career path to as wide an audience as possible.”
In addition to his Operations Planner role, Mr Riedel is now also helping to oversee the new scholarship recipients, providing the students with guidance and mentoring.
Danielle Inglis was a scholarship recipient in 2010. After graduating she joined OneFortyOne New Zealand as the (then) youngest member of the Nelson-Tasman based team, in a Technical Forester role. Ms Inglis has since become a Supply Chain Technician and runs the supply and operational system CrewSO (crew scheduling optimisation), that allocates, tracks and manages supply and demand in OneFortyOne New Zealand’s 80,000 hectares of forest in the Nelson Tasman and Marlborough regions.
“I really enjoy my role. It’s always evolving, and I am continually learning and being provided with a healthy amount of challenges,” she said. “I run an 18-month plan which involves scheduling crew capacity to different parts of the forest to meet customer demand.”
Like Mr Riedel, Ms Inglis is also part of the New Zealand Future Foresters group.
Shannon Rutherford was awarded a OneFortyOne New Zealand scholarship in 2003.
“I completed the four years at Canterbury University and at the end of it I was offered a graduate forestry job. I was one of the first people to come on board as a graduate forester,” she said. “About seven or eight months into the graduate forester job a Technical Forester role came up which I applied for and was offered.”
A couple of years later Ms Rutherford left for a 10-year stint in Sydney and Wellington. She has just returned to her second role with the company as a Forest Operations Planner – Technical.
In her job as part of the forestry team she is accountable for planning and undertaking technical forest operations, including trial work, waste assessments, survival surveys, forest health and nutrition, measuring and reporting on silvicultural operations, and maintaining forest records.
Jenny van Workum, Human Resources Manager for OneFortyOne New Zealand, says the business is very proud to support young people entering the forestry industry.
“Personally, I find it really satisfying seeing our young people move into a successful and rewarding forestry career,” she said.
OneFortyOne New Zealand accepts scholarship applications all year round and application period closes 31 August each year. For more information please contact [email protected]
