STUDENTS of all ages are flocking to shearing school to fill a gap in the market.

Landscape gardener Lyall Boyd is up to his elbows in crossbred sheep.

The 48-year-old, from Wodonga, had not set foot in a shearing shed, but was determined to learn shearing.

Lyall's instructors kidded him about his "mid-life crisis", while he considered he was on to a good thing.

"My brother-in-law is a shearing contractor at Finley and apparently there is a shearer shortage," Lyall said.

"I went to a school reunion and someone said I still looked pretty fit and should take up shearing. It stuck in my head and I was sick of what I was doing."

Lyall had tried house restumping, driving excavators, concreting, bar work and even remedial massage.

Last month, he was among a group of students, including an apprentice butcher, contract musterer and arborist, learning how to shear.

Ranging in age from 15 to 48, the students travelled from as far as Gippsland and Mitchell, in Queensland, to Shear Outback at Hay for the shearing school.

It was facilitated by the Riverina Institute of TAFE and supported by Australian Wool Innovation.

Shearing instructors Peter Artridge and Bill Garner were joined by wool-handling teachers Stacey Lugsdin and Mal Henman.

Bill said Riverina shearing contractors were desperate for staff.

"Local contractors have been here every day checking out the talent," Bill said.

The industry retention rate for the Hay school sits at 70 per cent.

"The majority of the kids going through here will get jobs," Peter Artridge said.

Hay wool grower Stacey began teaching wool handling last year after being a student of the course eight years ago.

"The labour shortage for wool classers is critical," she said.

Stacey said the 10-year drought had decimated flocks, but they were rebuilding by double lambing.

"People are changing to shearing every six or nine months so more wool-handling skills are needed," she said.

"The mines are a major factor - the big money has taken the skilled labour."

But 18-year-old apprentice butcher Corey Hicks, of Nathalia, is among the Generation Ys keen to cash in on the shearer shortage.

"A qualified butcher can make $1000 a week, but a good shearer can make $800 a day," he said.

"I'm doing this for a scenery change - I can do about 60 sheep a day.

"There is a bit of shortage of shearers everywhere - at Toc (Tocumwal), they're screamin' for workers."

Tom Gunn, 24, travelled from Mitchell in Queensland to pick up a handpiece for the first time.

"I was contract mustering in the Kimberley when the live export ban hit and I lost my job," Tom said.

"That's when I started thinking about shearing.

"At the start, I was taking half an hour to shear one sheep and now I can do one in 10 minutes."

Jillaroo Natalie Schulze, 19, grew up on the land at Gunningbland in central-west NSW.

"Hopefully, I can make a career out of shearing," she said. "I heard about women shearers being the gun in a shed, and I really want to make a go of it."

Last year, seven schools were run at Hay, Tocumwal, Leeton, Wagga Wagga and Tarcutta.

Peter Artridge said the schools were limited to 12-14 students because most sheds had six or seven stands.

But at a cost of more than $20,000, the schools don't come cheaply.

Each student pays a course fee of $225 a week, excluding meals and accommodation.

Peter said that university students learn to shear to help pay their course fees while apprentices use shearing to top up their income.

Bill Garner said: "A first-year apprentice earns about $6 an hour, but they are guaranteed $22 an hour as a shearer."

And the farmers haven't been forgotten at the schools, either.

Bill and Peter plan a farmer-only school for early next year at Hay.