Record demand for Teagasc Green Cert
These were organised to facilitate the 2015 Young Farmer Scheme (YFS) and National Reserve (NR) scheme applicants.
The European Commission earlier clarified that this year’s YFS/NR scheme applicants needed to enrol in an approved agricultural programme in order to fulfil the conditions.
This requirement only affected those applicants who had not already achieved the required educational qualification, or had not already commenced a course leading to such a qualification.
Teagasc made arrangements to ensure scheme applicants could be enrolled in a Green Cert programme in December.
Demand was an all-time high.
In the past year it enrolled over 3,500 learners, compared with 500 normally.
Factors driving the demand include the requirement to have the Green Cert or its equivalent for many farm schemes, and the financial and capital taxation incentives for young farmers.
Another driver was the desire of many adults in farming to pursue an agricultural education to improve their farming knowledge and technology if they had not had a previous opportunity to do so.
