Shearer, Wool Classer, Wool Handler

Career highlights

Make a difference

Shearers, wool handlers and classers ensure quality and efficient wool production, including grading fleece that to maximise profits for farmers. Play your part of the wool industry to help fibre production from local farms to global markets.

Exciting & diverse

Working in wool is face-paced and can see you travelling across farms and the world. From physical work of shearing in sheds, rotating between farm sites and shearing sheds as part of a team, to supervising of the flow of shearing and fleece preparation as a wool handler. In shearing sheds and off-site in wool stores, wool classers use a trained eye when fleece are graded, re-handled, tested, and stored, ready to be sent to the world.

What the job involves

Wool production relies on coordinated teamwork across shearers, handlers and classers. Shearers are essential workers in the wool industry that ensure the efficient shearing of quality fleeces. Wool handlers supervise and coordinate shearing sites, regulating the flow of sheep to be shorn, maintaining cleanliness of the sheds, and assist with wool clip preparation. Wool classers use specialist knowledge and technical skills to assess the fleece quality and conduct testing, sort wool into commercial lines to maximise profit, coordinate wool storage, and trade.

Educational pathways

TasTAFE

Cert IV Wool Classing

What best describes you?

What year?

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Business and Management

TasTAFE certifications (16+)

School subjects, VET courses and School-based Apprenticeships

Science and Technology

TasTAFE certifications (16+)

School subjects, VET courses and School-based Apprenticeships

Horticulture and Cropping

TasTAFE certifications (16+)

School subjects, VET courses and School-based Apprenticeships

Sustainability

TasTAFE certifications (16+)

School subjects, VET courses and School-based Apprenticeships

Biosecurity

TasTAFE certifications (16+)

School subjects, VET courses and School-based Apprenticeships

Animals and Livestock

TasTAFE certifications (16+)

School subjects, VET courses and School-based Apprenticeships

Food and Products

TasTAFE certifications (16+)

School subjects, VET courses and School-based Apprenticeships

Not sure yet - show me everything

TAFE courses (16+)

School subjects, VET courses and School-based Apprenticeships

Do you have a particular area of agriculture in mind?

Business and Management

TasTAFE certifications

School subjects, VET courses and School-based Apprenticeships

University degrees and diplomas

Science and Technology

TasTAFE certifications

School subjects, VET courses and School-based Apprenticeships

University degrees and diplomas

Horticulture and Cropping

TasTAFE certifications

School subjects, VET courses and School-based Apprenticeships

University degrees and diplomas

Sustainability

TasTAFE certifications

School subjects, VET courses and School-based Apprenticeships

University degrees and diplomas

Biosecurity

TasTAFE certifications

School subjects, VET courses and School-based Apprenticeships

University degrees and diplomas

Animals and Livestock

TasTAFE certifications

School subjects, VET courses and School-based Apprenticeships

University degrees and diplomas

Food and Products

TasTAFE certifications

School subjects, VET courses and School-based Apprenticeships

University degrees and diplomas

Not sure yet - show me everything

TasTAFE certifications

School subjects, VET courses and School-based Apprenticeships

University degrees and diplomas

What are you looking for?

Do you have a particular area of agriculture in mind?

Business and Management

Science and Technology

Horticulture and Cropping

Sustainability

Biosecurity

Animals and Livestock

Food and Products

Not sure yet - show me everything

Do you have a particular area of agriculture in mind?

Business and Management

TasTAFE certifications

University degrees and diplomas

Science and Technology

TasTAFE certifications

University degrees and diplomas

Horticulture and Cropping

TasTAFE certifications

University degrees and diplomas