With over 40 years’ experience working with employers and training providers, Lantra are proud to help the UK and Ireland’s environmental and land-based industries upskill the next generation of workers through apprenticeships.
We know that when it comes to considering a brand-new career, whatever your aspirations, nothing beats hearing it straight from those in the know.
As an End Point Assessment Organisation, Lantra has been speaking to some of our most recent success stories. We hope they will inspire you to pursue your chosen career!
Holly Turner has grown up with farming. "It's been bred into me. I used to sit with dad [Nick] in the tractor from when I was little and loved playing out in the fields," she reveals.
"Dad has always been my inspiration - watching him at work, how he did things, being with him out there every day."
Holly's granddad, John, founded J B Turner Roses around 1980 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. Dad (Nick) then started working for him in 1993, before starting his own farming business in 2008.
She's now putting her experience of life on the farm to fruitful use by qualifying in the kinds of work she undertakes day to day.
Newly armed with a distinction as a Crop Technician (Level 3), gained through Riseholme College, in Lincoln, Holly, 19, divides her days between arable and horticultural tasks on the farm's 450 acres.
"I've worked here since I was 15 - it's a tough life and can drain you physically and mentally," Holly states. "You don't have much social life but many of those I met on the course are farmers, so we keep in touch to see how we're all doing and to swap ideas."
Turner's is famed for its rose growing - they nurture around a million bushes a year in the rich silty soil, all destined for supplier David Austin Roses' in Wolverhampton.
"Granddad started growing them over 40 years ago," explains Holly. "They occupy around 40 acres and spend two years in the ground before we lift them for transporting.
"We plant generic stocks in March, then budwood is grafted on to them in June, July and August to create the hundreds of different varieties. David Austin Roses specify the numbers of which varieties they want. This often clashes with harvest, leading to some long, tiring hours during this season.
"Lifting usually starts in October and finishes just after Christmas. The bare root plants are collected into large cages in bundles of ten and moved off the farm by lorry every day. Lifting can often clash with drilling of the winter wheat."
“There's never enough time in what is such a short season," Holly adds. "Planting time for roses coincides with our potato planting and drilling of spring beans."
Weather can wreak havoc with the schedule though. "Before Christmas we had frost for eight days straight and couldn't get the lifter into the ground so had to stop," she recalls.
Holly's work varies with the seasons. "No day is ever the same," she says, "and you have to expect the unexpected. I'm on the fields most days, using gas guns to scare off the pigeons - and there are plenty of them. Then from November to February we have the pheasant shoot.
"I love harvest time when the combine comes out, which Dad drives. The tractors and trailers are mine and my sisters' job. After harvest, it is my job to get on with all the primary cultivations, getting ready for the next crops.
"Mum [Lucy] handles the office side of the business, paying bills and other paperwork, while helping out with harvest jobs too."
Farming is not always a joyous time, Holly confesses - "I hate standing in the workshop in the cold," she reveals.
Aside from upskilling in farm duties, her course has brought other benefits, despite the six-month delay due to covid restrictions. "I'm really glad I did the apprenticeship. It gave me a deeper understanding of farming, like cropping, as well as the soil science.
The importance of health and safety was a major focus too. "There's a high death rate in farming, so it's vital that you always think what you are doing - a moment's lapse of concentration and you could die or be left with life-changing injuries.
"The value of training is all about learning other, more efficient ways of doing things. Some of them I'd like to introduce on the farm.
"I would like to gain my HGV licence at some stage. It's a big move but once I have it, hopefully we can look at buying a lorry. This would then enable us to transport the roses to David Austin, instead of relying on contractors to collect and deliver them. This is my business proposal!
"The lorry will be pink," she adds with a smile. That's likely to turn heads as and when it happens but Holly's determined to make her mark.
Striking up friendships proved a major plus Holly took from her apprenticeship, which saw her in the classroom every other Friday. "I applied to the college with one of my best friends from school, which helped me a lot because I was the only girl on the course.
"That was scary at first but I'm a determined person who likes to prove people wrong.’’
The intensity of living and working every day in a family setting has eased, Holly says, now she has separated the two. "I didn't have a work/life balance before but I now live with my boyfriend - about 40 minutes' drive away - and the commute gives me time to wake up and prepare myself for the day. If I have to work late, I know that I can sleep over at mum and dad's.
"My boyfriend works on a 15,000-acre farm, driving one of the combines amongst other things, so he can get really busy too. Mum cooks for us when everything becomes hectic."
Holly's love of driving vehicles has translated into possible career progression. "I've always wanted to go into machinery sales," she says. Wouldn't that mean a move away from the family business? How would mum and dad feel? "They would be happy if I stayed with farming but they have always wanted me to follow my ambitions, so we'll have to see."
Summing up her farming life, Holly concludes: "It's harsh but rewarding."
If you’re interested in a career in farming or any other industry in the land-based and environmental sector, check out Lantra’s new website for comprehensive information on job roles, career paths and support training and qualifications.