AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Introduction

The reasons why it is sense to invest in agricultural training if you are going to be a rural resettler are numerous - and pretty obvious. Not least you owe it to your animals to know something about their care and management. Even if you have only a few acres, your financial investment will be considerable and you owe it to yourself to acquire the skills needed to farm your land productive-ly. Maybe there will be an opportunity for agricultural employment and a craftsman will be the most likely to land the job.

How to start? There are numerous books which you can read, but there is absolutely no substitute for actually doing a job under supervision in order to learn. Once you have some practical experience, then you will be able to take advantage of the more theoretical courses available.

This section deals with ways to obtain training, the organisations to contact and what they have to offer.

The County Colleges of Agriculture and Horticulture (LEAs)

1. Ordinary National Diploma - a 3-year course at technical level. Of varying practical content. Primarily for school-leavers with 4 '0' levels.

2. National Certificate Courses - these are available in agri-culture, horticulture, dairying, poultry, and farm secretarial. They last one year and are largely practical in content although the student must pass written examinations. Normally the student should have spent at least one year gaining practical experience and attending day-release before going to college for these full-time courses. Grants are available from the Local Education Authorities and under the Training Opportunities Scheme. These are excellent courses for those who wish to work as practical farmers or growers, and frequently include mature students.

3. Other full-time courses - (a) Many of the colleges offer supplementary and other courses of up to one year full-time in fairly specialised fields: e.g. grassland management and farming. Grant aid is available from the LEAS's or TOPS.

4. Day and Block Release Courses - the colleges organise and run day and block release courses leading to City and Guilds qualifications in agriculture and horticulture, and to National Proficiency Tests which confer craftsman status in terms of wages. You do not have to take the exams and tests to gain from these courses. Day release involves attending the centre one day a week between September and May. Block release is normally from a Monday to Friday. Both are designed to be taken in conjunction with a full-time job. Agricultural Training Board (ATB) apprentices must attend.

5. Short Courses - these are likely to be of most use to the rural resettler. They are specialist courses on subjects such as bee-keeping, gardening, lambing, cheese-making, dairy cows, etc. They may be one week, one day a week, or just one day in duration. Some are subsidised, but for others an economic fee must be paid. The practical content depends on the particular course. For details, you need to contact the individual colleges.

6. Other special short courses - some colleges run special short courses, e.g. school leavers and forces resettlement. These are usually 'tasting' courses of a very general nature, and may be a good idea if you cannot make up your mind whether agriculture is for you or not.

If there is no College of Agriculture within your county, there will be someone in charge of Agricultural Education in the LEA. Day release classes will be available. Normally the LEA will give grants for residential attendance at a College, in an adjacent' county, provided that the potential student is eligible for a grant.

The Agricultural (and Horticultural) Training Board

If you have a registered agricultural or horticultural holding (with a MAFF* holding number, e.g. 10-284-12) or are employed by a farmer or grower, then you come into the scope of the ATB. They are fin-anced by the government, so training is subsidised.

They run a variety of courses. Initially these were very pract-ical in nature, but now have been extended to cover more theoretical and managerial topics. Most courses last one or two days from about 10.00 am to 4.00 pm and there are longer courses which may be resi-dential. They take place on farms or at conference centres, iriclud-ing the Board's own centre at Stoneleigh. Sometimes courses are run in conjunction with Colleges of Agriculture.

Heavily subsidised by the ATB are local Training Groups. These are run by farmers and farm-workers for themselves. A Group Training Officer or Organiser co-ordinates. Each group sets its own member-ship charge which can range from £2 to £50 a year. The courses put on by the groups are very practical in content, usually taking place on members' farms. The ATB also runs an apprenticeship scheme, designed for school-leavers.

Subjects covered by the ATB include lambing, milking, calf-rearing, goat-husbandry, farm buildings and gate making. There is also a range of machinery courses, including tractor driving, chain saws, mowers and hand and workshop tools. The instructors are usually in commercial agriculture or horticulture themselves, and instruct on a part-time basis.

For further details, contact your local ATB office or ATB head office.