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The "oil" that's undervalued
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| A dedicated course can reveal the mysteries of camels! |
THE NFU recently launched a campaign in which they said: "Look to the countryside to see how it can give you the career of your dreams."
Although aimed at young people who are about to leave school and start on the first step of their career ladder to look at the wealth of opportunities available working in agriculture and related businesses, it also served as a reminder that you don't need a farming background to have a successful career in the industry.
Packed with real life case studies, the report aims to inspire young people and give them advice on where to go to get the ball rolling.
Vice-president Paul Temple says: "This is the best life and the best job I could possibly think of. The benefits of the countryside are fantastic and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."
People of all ages would surely agree and one of the many benefits of learning is that it will help you to understand the whole picture and therefore be more enjoyable.
But Kate Mason, of Vale Training Services, asks: "Why don't we value training."
She believes that training is a critical part of any business or enterprise and is the oil which drives the engine, yet it is so often undervalued and ignored. Poor training leads to poor performance which results in costly mistakes. As a training provider to small businesses, with over 22 years of experience, it constantly amazes her how little value is placed on the development of new skills.
She says: "I was recently having lunch with two good friends, one a vet the other a rural insurance broker, when I suddenly realised that they were held in higher esteem than I was, and the fees charged rarely questioned. They were considered to be professional, whereas training providers are just a service, often the one taking the flack when new legislation is implemented.
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"This started me thinking as to why this was, and what action could be taken to improve the value clients give to training. After lengthy discussions with training colleagues, it was decided that training has no tangibility. We rarely take anything physical home from a training course, yet new found skills save us a huge amount both in money, time, irritation or often all three.
"Vet's bills and insurance premiums can be reduced; tractors repaired; livestock saved unnecessary suffering, and relevant paperwork given to Trading Standards Officers. When put like this we can start to see the value of training, not to mention the increase in self-esteem a new skill gives us."
Make sure the course you are going to attend meets your needs. If your provider has done the training needs analysis correctly, he/she will have assessed your level of previous knowledge and your preferred style of learning. Not all of us like practical "hands-on" sessions, some prefer reading or showing - make sure the course gives YOU what you want. Ask what is involved - course aims and objectives - so that you can familiarise yourself with what is being offered. Assess the quality of training you are being offered, is the provider accredited with a recognised body?
For example, Lantra are the sector skills council for land-based industries and RBAT (the Rural Business Advice Network) quality assure rural training providers in the South East. Ask for a testimonial or referee for the course you are interested in and enquire what the instructor/trainee ratio is, as this will help you gauge how much training YOU will get.
Currently much is being made of the Transportation of Livestock regulations, and many courses are now on offer to deal with this. From January 5, 2007, a new regulation on the protection of animals during transport was brought in across the European Union (EU), with some elements coming into force later in 2008 and 2009. The regulation applies to all those involved with the transport of live vertebrate animals in connection with an economic activity. For example: livestock and equine hauliers; farmers and commercial pet breeders. By January 5, 2008, drivers and attendants transporting farmed animals, horses and poultry on journeys over eight hours or 65km (approximately 40 miles) will require a Certificate of Competence. This will only be issued to an individual if they have received training and undergone an independent assessment by an accredited body. So now is your opportunity to really make training count for you, use the guidelines above and hopefully training will soon be valued as highly as vets and insurance brokers!"
We asked some training providers for details of their courses and they are so varied as you can see from their details. The adverts supporting this feature are also full of fascinating courses from the Smallholding Courses at Berkshire College of Agriculture which start in November with Setting up a Smallholding and progress to Running a Smallholding to the Working Horses courses. Tree care courses (more of those next month) and bio dynamic courses. Never has there been more opportunity to get out and learn a new skill or a new way of doing things.
Plumpton College continues to expand its land-based courses at both further and higher education levels. It offers a wide range of land-based and animal-related courses, from entry level programmes through to degree level. Full time and part time courses are available, with an extensive range of work-based learning for those in employment.
The Sussex Rural Business Centre provides a range of business training courses specifically designed for employers. Courses range from those designed for students in their last years at school, through a substantial 16-18 provision and higher education and employer focused work. Vocational areas include agriculture, agricultural and construction machinery, animal management, blacksmithing and metalsmithing, rural business management, countryside and environment, equine studies, floristry, forestry and arboriculture, garden design, horticulture, sportsturf, sport (outdoor education), wine business and wine production.
Oaklands Pigs
Claire Wilson explains why they moved into providing courses:
"We moved to our current smallholding 10 years ago, and like many starting up we had a few sheep and a couple of weaners for fattening. As time went by, the work on fencing and buildings progressed and we gradually increased our livestock numbers. Then, unbeknown to us, one of the gilts we purchased was already in pig, which started our tentative venture into farrowing.
"Although completely unprepared, the experience was not that traumatic, and we decided to start replacing our crossbred sows with British Saddlebacks. In the early years we were forever grateful to neighbouring farmers and contacts who came out in all weathers and times to assist us with difficult lambings, or moving a sick pig who was laying down in the field.
"Often finding it difficult to get them to take any payment for coming out, we ended up paying in sausages or exchanged favours. But they were always there to give advice on where to get products, who would do hedge cutting and how we could make things easier. So when we started to sell our own weaners, we took the trouble to spend time with people showing them options for housing and fencing. How they could improvise equipment and avoid some of the pitfalls that we fell into when we started up. Most customers tend to visit us when the piglets are a couple of weeks old, which gives them time to set up their environment before they are ready to be collected. On average they will spend an hour chatting pigs and everyone gets a leaflet to take away with a summary of the information we have given them, advice on feeding, current regulations and contact numbers to help them get prepared.
"It seemed only natural for us to progress from giving advice to individual customers, often doing this several times to different customers during a weekend when litters were ready, to running a full pig keeping course. The courses we run are on a small friendly basis designed for the newcomer or novice pig keeper. We aim to pass on tips and advice for setting up the environment, how to keep them healthy, what the regulations are, and how to move up from weaners for fattening to starting to breed. Part of the course is classroom based, with sessions outside with our herd of outdoor British Saddlebacks and Crossbred sows, and also sessions in the farrowing sheds with sows in various stages of pregnancy and litters.
"There are so many things that you learn as you go along, that we wished we had known a long time ago and maybe we would have laid out thing differently had we known. But now if we can pass some of this advice onto newcomers, we hope that their experience will be a much easier and enjoyable one that will keep them hooked on pigs for years to come." www.oakland pigs.co.uk.
Creating an edible landscape
The conscious design of human settlements, permaculture, seeks to integrate localised energy generation and green technology, "waste" management systems, provision of shelter and food production.
The latter can take the form of an "edible landscape," an attempt to mimic a natural ecosystem characterised by a wide-ranging abundance of biomass and foodstuffs, zero waste/pollution, high biodiversity and beauty. We advocate a move away from our dependency on the current energy demanding infrastructure and suggest creating edible landscapes around the places we live in an attempt to reduce food miles and consequent CO2 emissions while continuing to maintain a healthy and comfortable lifestyle.
With minimal energy input mutually beneficial relationships between humans and wildlife can be developed and function within the system with the eventual aim of it becoming totally organic and self sustaining. This whole approach can be applied on a garden or backyard scale right through to an entire farm or village!
There are no hard and fast rules with permaculture, but using a set of guiding principles we are provided with an approach to problem solving where we work with nature not against it and so we overcome so called "problems" by turning them into solutions.
In nature everything is recycled and so we must simulate this during the design process by discovering uses for our "waste" before we create it. This opens opportunities to reuse it by providing for the needs of other aspects of the system and so the many cycles within it are continually repeated. An example of this is our research into the use of excess pig manure for lining ponds with multiple uses, and domestic grey water sources supplying back yard biological filters and ecological aquaculture.
What do we plan for the future? To experiment with the findings of our research with a view to a continuance to help others embrace practical working sustainability through consultancy and design, contracting and training / courses - sharing what we have learnt ! www.ediblelandscape.co.uk.
Chainsaws
You may feel confident about chainsaws but are you competent? Simon Scotting, who offers tree care training services, says that if you are unsure of the answer then learning how to maintain your chainsaw to optimise its performance and techniques to use it skillfully and above all safely, could be a worthwhile investment, saving you money and reducing the likelihood of you having an accident.
So how do you get trained to improve your skills and meet the criteria laid out by the HSE? For further information go to: www.nptc.org.uk
www.hse.gov.uk
www.lantra-awards.co.uk/catalogue/chainsaw_home.aspx
Simon Scotting is a registered Lantra instructor and NPTC Assessor for Tree Care Training Services, specialising in chainsaw training. www.treecaretrainingservices.co.uk
Be a Biodynamic Apprentice!
The Biodynamic Agricultural Association offers an opportunity to learn while working on biodynamic holdings. Biodynamic Agricultural Association Tel 01453 759501 www.biodynamic.org.uk
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