Resilient Green Spaces, a European Rural Development funded project, is piloting alternative and re-localised food systems using communities and their green spaces as a driving force for change across Wales, for the benefit of growers, consumers, and the climate. The project has six pioneering strands of work that will test what local people can achieve together given the right support, access to land and freedom to do what they do best. One of these areas is focusing on building horticultural future farming skills by designing and delivering a pilot training programme to assist new entrant growers in developing the skills needed to run a horticultural farming business.
Opportunities for trainees
We are currently reaching out to Welsh farms intending to recruit trainees for the 2022 season. We have 12 fully-funded places available on a horticulture development programme for trainees based on Welsh farms.
The Wales Future Farmer Training Programme will supplement day to day on-farm learning with study visits, seminars and networking. This will be delivered by Lantra and Land Workers Alliance in collaboration with a collection of experienced farmers, growers and industry experts.
The programme will include 4 weekend study visits, 8 online webinars, peer to peer networking and opportunities for further accredited training.
Opportunities for growers
In addition to providing learning opportunities for new entrants, we are interested in hearing from experienced growers who would like to assist with the delivery of the programme. This is a paid opportunity for knowledge sharing, either through delivering a training webinar, acting as a host farm for training weekends, providing a farm tour or delivering an in-person seminar on an area of the programmes curriculum. There are also fully funded accredited training opportunities for growers interested in developing their skills as trainers.
Requirements
- Your farm or horticulture enterprise must be based in Wales and be demonstrating agroecological practices. Any farm can be part of the programme however this year we are particularly keen to include urban or peri-urban farms, and also farms servicing under-supported areas across Wales.
- The grower/s overseeing the trainees must be a skilled agroecological grower with knowledge of the key areas in our programme’s curriculum. Prior experience of working with trainees/volunteers etc. is required. This is to assure a high standard of delivery. Growers will need to complete a quality assurance form on application.
- The employer must be able to provide a minimum of 5 months on farm training experience of 21+ hours a week.
- Time must be allocated for the trainee to take part in all activities relating to the Wales Future Farmer Horticulture Training Programme.
- The employer must be able to provide a trainee wage for the entirety of the traineeship. We are in support of providing workers with at least a living wage. However, if this is not possible, trainees must be paid, at minimum, the current UK National Minimum Apprentice Wage of £4.30 an hour. Please see Government guidance on employing an apprentice here. Funding from the Kickstart scheme and other sources can be used. Please contact us if this is a barrier to recruitment.
- The traineeship program will run from May until September 2022 but on farm employment can begin and end at any time.
Process
We will work with recruiters to create job profiles to advertise traineeships for the 2022 season. Hiring of trainees will be done by the farm but we will assist with promoting the employment opportunities and signposting interested candidates to farms. We will have regular communication with both farms and trainees throughout the traineeship. As part of the programme, we ask for progress information and evaluation feedback from both the farms and the trainees.
Apply
If you are interested in recruiting a trainee for the 2022 season and would like to take part in this training programme, either as a development opportunity for your trainees or as part of the delivery, please click here to complete an expression of interest form. The closing date is Monday 10th January 2022. For further information please contact lorraine.powell@lantra.co.uk
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