Farming Apprenticeships: What you need to know

Farming Apprenticeships offer an excellent platform for school leavers to pursue a career in a diverse, challenging and rewarding industry. If you’re looking for a career that avoids the monotonous 9-5 office-based lifestyle then you’ve come to the right place! Farming Apprenticeships promises a long and fulfilling career where no two days will ever be the same.

What do farming Apprenticeships involve?

Farming Apprenticeships combine academic study with practical training allowing you to gain a wealth of experience and skills along with industry specific qualifications and a real salary. There are a wide variety of roles that you can do in farming from tending to crop, animals and maintaining machinery and equipment. A farming Apprenticeship is the perfect opportunity to learn technical skills while developing existing skills and building your knowledge and understanding of the industry.

The farming industry is vital to the economy they are the main source of raw materials and the supply of food. Without it there would be no Sunday lunch being served and no bacon butties in a morning. Young people are extremely in demand in the farming industry with the average age of staff in agriculture being 59 years old the need to attract and encourage young people is essential or else who is going to continue feeding the world when all current staff reach retirement age?

With each farm brings different roles and with that brings different responsibilities but if you’re a lover of the great outdoors then there’s bound to be a position that matches your career goals. The farming industry has changed vastly over the years with the pressure to adopt environmental friendly methods of farming such as organic. Depending on what area of the UK you live in will all play a part in what type of farm you could be working on. The main types of farms include arable (crops and cereals), pastorals (animals/dairy), mixed farms (both animals and crops) and market gardening (fruit and vegetables).

So, now that you know what type of farm you could be working on let’s look at a small handful of roles that the farming industry offers:

Land-based engineering – This is a rapid moving career with excellent progression routes. Upon beginning your Apprenticeship in land-based engineering you’ll be generating solutions to engineering issues within the agriculture industry. This could involve working on a wide range of machinery from loaders to harvesters, tractors to ploughs and many more.

Crop Technician – Crop technicians are involved in a range of duties such as seeding, cropping, propagation, fertilising, watering, spraying, pruning and the cultivation of vegetables, fruit plants, greenhouse crops and more.

Tractor Driver – Tractor drivers operate a variety of agriculture machinery to perform a range of duties to the highest standards. You’ll carry out daily machinery checks, perform basic repairs and plough fields, sow seeds, spray crops, bale and harvest.

Animal Husbandry – Working within animal husbandry involves keeping animals safe and healthy as you plan and oversee breeding, care for newborn animals, plan a nutritious diet, and prepare animals for slaughter or sale.

Skills needed for farming Apprenticeships

Farming Apprenticeships can be physically challenging and will involve working long hours but if you’re the type of person that rises to a challenge and want to enjoy life working in the great outdoors as opposed an average office job then farming could be right up your street. To succeed in agriculture and farming you need to be able to adapt as the market changes, communicate effectively and understand and build you knowledge on the industry throughout your Apprenticeship.

Apprenticeship Standards

The following Apprenticeship standards are currently ready for delivery:

Land-based Service Engineer – Level 2

Land-based Service Engineer Technician – Level 3

Crop Technician – Level 3

Countryside worker – Level 2

Packhouse Team Leader – Level 3

Poultry Technician – Level 3

Poultry Worker – Level 2

Stockperson – Level 2

Farming Apprenticeships: What you need to know