Harvesting Worker

Career information

What do they do?

Harvesting contractors and their workers fell the mature trees, extract them to a processing area and cut the trees into log lengths ready to be shipped to market. They will have a good understanding of health and safety, environmental protection requirements and the forestry supply chain. Workers will have good mechanical skills and be able to operate equipment from chainsaws through to state of the art advanced mechanised felling and processing machines.

A typical day

Often a ten-hour working day; sometimes weekend work is required. There are a mix of jobs to do from preparing the ground, planting, pruning, measuring tree growth, selecting and cutting down trees through to using harvesting machinery, operating loaders, cutting and grading logs and maintaining equipment.

You'll need to be safety conscious, practical and work well in teams.

Sound like you?

Study areas
  • Sciences or Workshop Technologies
  • Agriculture or Horticulture
  • Physical Education or Health
Attributes
  • Reasonable strength and fitness
  • Good initiative/'can-do' attitude
  • Good work habits/time management
Helpful experience
  • Making or fixing things
  • Working with machinery
Preferred work environments
  • Outdoors
  • Different places from time to time

Pathway

School

These can be useful from school:

Good NCEA Level 1 passes in:

  • Maths
  • English
Entry level jobs

Traineeship or apprenticeship

  • Forestry Worker
  • Logging Worker
Advancing jobs
  • Machine operator
  • Tree faller
  • Crew manager
Senior jobs
  • Contractor 
  • Forest manager

Qualifications

No items found.

The logistics sector needs skilled people

Learn more on the qualifications available.

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Available jobs

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