To help find the spokespeople and industry leaders of tomorrow the NFU has successfully run a Farming Ambassadors training programme across three of its regions.
Farming Ambassadors is supported by the Rural Development Programme for England through an ADAS run training programme, which provided funds for the trainers involved. The course consisted of media training run by former BBC Working Lunch presenter Rob Pittam, negotiation and chairmanship skills with farmer-turned consultant Andy Guy (East Midlands) and Margaret Hartley (North East and West Midlands) with Tessa Morton putting the successful applicants through their paces on presentation skills. The three, six hour long days provided the trainees with an opportunity to gain new skills and experience and develop themselves in key areas; learning how to communicate more effectively both in front of an audience and through television and radio and gaining the skills to direct a meeting and how to reach a conclusion in a negotiation. The candidates on the course will now be able to use the training and new skills they have gained to benefit them personally, in their business and across the industry.
Pictured are the West Midlands Farming Ambassadors. Richard Bower, who works on the family farm in Staffordshire said, at the end of the course “It has been a challenging but brilliant programme, with an excellent mix of ambassadors farming a diverse range of activities. It was great fun, we all enjoyed it and learned a lot from the experienced trainers. The training has helped me to build confidence. The media training element of the programme was especially inspiring and as passionate farmers we need to support each other and use the media to get across our story to the public and produce buyers. I am now looking forward to putting the training into practice back at home on the farm, and through my role as a branch livestock link rep at the NFU."
We hope to run a further Farming Ambassador programme in the North West in the next few months so please keep an eye on their regional pages if you are interested. We also hope to repeat the programme across the regions later in 2014 so watch out for news of the application window.