Farmers Apprentice: Open for entries
Farmers Weekly’s ground-breaking new initiative, the Farmers Apprentice, is open for entries.
If you’re a switched-on 18-25 year old who loves the outdoors, is practically minded and has a passion for food and farming, then we want to hear from you. Simply visit www.farmersapprentice.co.uk to register your interest and put yourself in the frame to win £10,000 and kick-start a career in farming.
Applicants could be farmers born and bred who want to broaden their horizons and prove they’ve got what it takes to follow in their parents’ footsteps, but with 60,000 jobs to fill, we’re also extending our search beyond the farmgate.
We’ll be scouring towns, cities and suburbs throughout the country to find talented, would-be farmers, who are low on experience but high on passion.
How it works
Anyone can apply – whether you’re a fifth-generation farmer, or you’ve never set foot on a farm in your life, but you do have to be between the ages of 18 and 25.
Once you have registered your interest, we will ask you to send us a short video telling us what makes you stand out from the crowd. The deadline for video entries is 14 September.
After the initial entry process, we’ll select a line-up of 10 finalists to take part in a five-day residential bootcamp at Reaseheath College in Cheshire in October. Here you’ll be put through their paces in a range of tasks that will test and mentor you in the skills needed to be a successful farmer today – and tomorrow.
We’ll be filming their bootcamp experience from the moment you wake up in the morning to the moment your head hits the pillow at night to produce a series of six “webisodes” that will be screened online in November.
At the end of bootcamp we will have a group of 10 young “apprentices”, each with a unique CV in hand, ready to make their mark on British farming. One overall winner will also take home a £10,000 prize to kick-start their career in agriculture.
The judges
Three judges will be keeping a careful eye on entries and will put the 10 finalists through their paces at bootcamp in October.
Our judges are former Director of Co-operative farms, Christine Tacon, Agriculture Programme Leader at Reaseheath College, Matthew Bagley and current Farmers Weekly Awards, Farmer of the Year, Charlie Russell.
These are the people you will need to impress. Find out more about them and what they will be looking for below:
Who are we working with?
Sponsored by McDonald’s, the Farmers Apprentice is our challenge to attract fresh talent from all backgrounds into the farming industry. But we’ve got two incredible partners to help us along the way.
Reaseheath College will play host for the apprentices during the five-day bootcamp. As one of the foremost agricultural colleges in the UK, their staff are looking forward to pushing our 10 finalists to the limit, both on and off the farm.
Filming the bootcamp from dawn to dusk, will be a team of young film makers from The Co-operative British Youth Film Academy .
Bridging the gap between education and the film industry, the BYFA enables young people to work with professional film makers on real film-sets to produce full-length feature films. Some of their best young talent will be working with us at the bootcamp to produce the six-part Farmers Apprentice series.
How to get involved
Check out www.farmersapprentice.co.uk where you can find out all you need to know about the Farmers Apprentice and how to enter the competition.
Go to www.facebook.com/farmersapprentice and click ‘like’ to get all the latest info as the Farmers Apprentice progresses throughout the year.
Follow @farmapprentice to get straight-to-the-point updates. You can also tweet with the hashtag #farmapprentice to tell us what you think about the project
Youtube
Get an alert every time we post a new video by subscribing to our YouTube channel at www.youtube.co.uk/farmersapprentice Our first video is now live