Teagasc has nearly doubled its teaching staff to cope with the unprecedented demand for its Green Cert agri-education programme which will cater for 1,500 students this year.

The actual demand for the Green Cert has soared to 5,000.

The high numbers are due to the new requirements within the current EU Rural Development Programme and farm payment changes under the Young Farmer and National reserve entitlement scheme.

Professor Gerry Boyle, head of Teagasc, told the Farming Independent that he expected the state body to process all Green Cert applicants speedily but added it will take a few years to deal with all applications.

Teagasc has increased its teaching staff by 70 – all of whom are on two year contracts – to cope with the current level of interest after the Government gave the organisation a partial exemption from the public service employment embargo to deal with this new demand.

The scale of the demand facing Teagasc can be seen from the application statistics and the current educational capacity of the state body.

In a normal year Teagasc would expect to see about 1,500 students – a mixture of approximately 500 school leavers continuing their studies, mature students and students pursuing further studies online.

But the new CAP rules, which run until 2020, have led to the spke in applications.

Prof Boyle says many of the older students are coming from the north and north western counties.

“Many are coming from small farms in these regions and not from the big commercial and dairy farms further south in the country. It maybe that many are coming home after a period of emigration or are now getting back into farming.

“It will be interesting to see how these mature students adapt to disciplines of studying,” he added.

“The teacher-pupil ratio at Teagasc’s educational facilities in 2009 was 1-12 and this year this ratio has risen to 1-22, Ideally the pupil-teacher ratio at Teagasc colleges should be 1-15,” he said.

These tight ratios are needed because much of the teaching involves close contact with livestock and other farm hazards, he explained.

Teagasc are confident they will work through this “temporary blip” from normal student levels over the next few years.

In any event, Prof Boyle welcomed the increased interest in agricultural education.

Standards

“Education in modern farming methods will only improve the standard of farming practice and management on farms throughout the country,” he said.

“Education gives people confidence and this will be transferred to the way the farm is managed and will help farmers make important changes to their farm enterprise.

“This is good for the agriculture industry and for the country as a whole,” Prof Boyle added.

Teagasc run agricultural courses to Level 8 or the equivalent of an honours degree. The Green Cert courses, where the demand is currently the highest, are at Level 6 and 7 and once completed successful students have the option of continuing to the higher levels.

The Teagasc Level 7 courses cover agri-business, environmental management, dairy farm management, horticulture, and ag science while Level 6 courses cover equine studies, higher certificates in agriculture and agri-mechanisation. There is also a Level 8 honours degree in agricultural science.

(Source – Irish Independent – Indo Farming – Ken Whelan – 09/12/2015)

Only one in 11 applicants gets a place on UCD’s agri courses

UCD is reporting a levelling off in interest for its various agricultural degrees but the college is partly putting this down to an increase in the CAO points required to gain entry its School of Agriculture.

This year the university accepted 330 new undergraduates from in excess of 3,000 applicants which equates to just under one available place for every 11 applicants.

Overall, there are 1,300 agri-degree undergraduates at the university studying various courses from animal science, crop production, food science, engineering and horticulture to degree levels over four years.

Overall the student cohort is up 37pc on levels which were the norm a decade ago.

“Applications have levelled out over the past year but remain on a high plateau. The interest is in keeping with the interest in agriculture and agri-business generally.

“The fact that the points for agriculture have increased shows that the quality of candidates overall is getting stronger,” UCD’s Damien Dempsey said.

This year’s successful applicants had to achieve 470 points from their Leaving Certificates, an increase from 465 points in 2014.

The university has also noticed that previously unsuccessful candidates for UCD were now successfully re-applying to the university having completed FETAC courses.

The gender profile of UCD’s ag students is now 45pc female and 55pc male.

And a recent ‘Final Destinations Report’ commissioned by the college on how their student cohort got on after leaving UCD showed that 61pc were employed with six to nine months while 32pc opted to continue their studies to masters level with the remainder opting to travel or pursue another career.

The various UCD degree modules include significant ‘on the job training’ which is supported by the various large agri-businesses in the country. The college also has link-ups to outside research and educational campuses like the Smurfit Business school and the Lyons research farm in west Co Dublin.

(Source – Irish Independent – Indo Farming – Ken Whelan – 09/12/2015)

 

Most EU Farmers Learning Only Through Practical Practice

Only 9% of EU farmers have undergone any kind of full agricultural training course. And over 60% of the youngest farmers haven’t received any agricultural training.

Eurostat figures updated to 2013 show the vast majority of EU farmers have learned only through practical experience.

More than 80% of the oldest farmers never had agricultural training.

Only about 20% of all farmers have received even basic training.

Elderly farmers still represent the majority in Europe, with almost a third aged 65 or over.

Agriculture is the sector in which it is most common for people to continue work after the age of 65.

In particular, managers aged 65 or over accounted for half (50.1%) of all holding managers in Portugal, and for at least a third in Romania (41%), Cyprus (40%) Italy (39.7%), Bulgaria (36.7%), Lithuania (34%), Spain and Croatia (both 33.3%).

Farmers aged 55 to 64 accounted for at least a quarter of all farm managers in nearly every EU member state.

At the other end of the scale, Germany (6.5%), Austria (8.6%), Poland (9.6%), Finland (10.2%), France (12.4%) and Luxembourg (14.4%) registered the lowest proportions of managers aged 65 or over.

For the younger age group, under-35s stood below 10% in all EU Member States, except Poland (12.1%) and Austria (10.9%).

The lowest proportions of young farmers were recorded in Cyprus (1.7%), Denmark and Portugal (both 2.5%) and the Netherlands (3.1%).

With 5.5% under 35, Ireland is near the average (6%).

(Source – Irish Examiner – Stephen Cadogan – 10/12/2015)