Dairy apprenticeship aims to close skills gap
Only 5% of Irish farmers are under the age of 35. File picture.
The dairy industry needs to attract well-trained and skilful young people, said Emma-Louise Coffey, the programme co-ordinator for the farm manager apprenticeship programme, in a recent podcast.
“There’s a big gap, and a need for more people,” she said.
“Who’s going to work the land in the future? Who’s going to run farms and milk our cows?”
Only 5% of Irish farmers are under the age of 35. One in every three is over the age of 65. The 2024 National Farm Survey found that the average age of an Irish dairy farmer was 54.
There are many routes for people to enter farming nowadays. “Typically, somebody who is 17 or 18 years of age, who has done the Leaving Cert, or has maybe come out of school early and is working on farms, would typically engage with a full-time education programme, the Level 5 and 6 courses," she added.
They’re one year each, so two years within an ag college in Ireland. There are six colleges that provide that education: Kildalton, Clonakilty, Ballyhaise, Mountbellew, Pallaskenry, and Gurteen. They’re dotted across the country.
“There’s classroom learning, there are practical skills on the college farm, and there are placement periods where they would go for a significant block of time out to a farm, particularly in the springtime, to put the theory that they’re learning in the classroom into practice.
“Once they’ve finished that, there’s the opportunity to go further. Some, once they have completed Level 6, will engage with the course I’m working on, the Farm Management Apprenticeship course, to do another two years of full-time education,” Emma-Louise added.
“When I say full-time education, they will be based on a farm, the earn-while-you-learn model. They’re going to spend at least 80% of their time on the farm, and then they will come away from the farm unit and into the college setting, either Kildalton or Moorepark, to do college days, in and around five days per month.”
For those who wish to pursue a career in the agricultural industry as a farm technician, there’s the farm technician apprenticeship. It’s two years in duration and results in the award of a higher certificate in technical farm operations (NFQ Level 6).
“The professional diploma in dairy farm management is our old system that ceased to exist in 2024, with the farm manager apprenticeship totally taking over. From an education perspective, somebody who completes the apprenticeship will get a full Level 7, a bachelor of science in farm management.
"So, from a qualification perspective, you have the equivalent qualification if you completed your Level 7 at a technological university, but that would have been more classroom-based, with full-time lectures and a small amount of placement,” she said.
The farm manager apprentice spends 80% of their time on-farm.
“With the new system, you will stay on the one farm for the full two years of the programme,” she said.
“We do not place a student on a host farm. Now, the apprentice will select the farm that they want to work on. Students will sign up with a qualified farmer, and will subsequently sign up with Teagasc to undertake the classroom aspect.
“It’s an opportunity for both apprentice and farmer to be more selective,” she said.
A common trend in the last couple of years is for a lot of apprentices to remain close to home. “They’re saying 30 minutes is their max commute. They want to live at home,” Emma-Louise said.
Apprentices can actively seek out the kind of farm set-up that suits them best.
Then it’s up to the farmer interviewing them to say yes or no to the apprentice.
“The typical person who is coming to engage with this course has done their Level 5 and 6.
“A lot of them would have a very good rapport with the person they did their Level 6 placement with, and they’d say, ‘I’d love to continue working with them.’ If that farmer is successful in applying to become an approved employer, that is totally achievable,” she added.
“From a farmer perspective, if you want to engage with this programme, and you’d like to employ somebody through the apprenticeship programme, first you need to look at yourself technically.
"Are you good to measure what’s happening on your farm, simple things like your grass measurement? Are you engaging with ICBF to analyse your herd, milk recording, those kind of things? Are you doing a financial analysis, typically something like the profit monitor?”
The farm must be a safe working environment, with health and safety measures in place.
The farmer must also be a member of a discussion group, ideally one that the apprentice can also attend. The apprentice should be facilitated to go on appropriate farm walks and to attend relevant open days, to avail of exposure to best-practice farming techniques.
“The apprentices are bringing a huge amount of skill and knowledge to the farm,” Emma-Louise said.
Their studies include benchmarking their study farm and devising strategies to improve it, drawing on Teagasc’s cutting-edge research and knowledge.
“Where there’s a meaningful engagement, when the apprentice returns to the farm after block release, there can be huge improvements in farm businesses,” she said.
Emma-Louise considers the apprenticeship course vital for young people intending to pursue a career in farming.
“They are gaining their qualification while they’re earning. They’re probably earning as much as if they were a normal staff member on a farm, in a lot of cases, maybe sometimes even more. There’s continuity of work, and there is a massive amount of skill and knowledge development,” she said.
“To see the development over those two years is absolutely phenomenal,” she said.
