A group of youngsters have successfully kick-started their careers in agriculture after graduating from Ringlink Scotland’s land-based internship programme.
Ringlink, which is Scotland’s largest machinery ring, yesterday recognised the efforts of 11 youngsters, aged between 16 and 20, following completion of the six-month scheme.
The group, who comprised youngsters from across Aberdeenshire, Angus, Moray and Tayside, was the fourth intake to go through the scheme which sets out to provide young people with a broad overview of work in the rural sector through a programme of training and mentoring.
Ringlink chairman Andrew Moir, who farms at Mains of Thornton near Laurencekirk, paid tribute to the interns and their mentors for their hard work.
He also thanked the scheme’s sponsors – Mains of Loirston Charitable Trust, AgriScot, AHDB, the Royal Northern Agricultural Society, GPH Builders Merchants, Groundwater Lift Trucks Ltd, A.M. Phillip, and the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland – and SRUC for its support in running the project.
Interns spend the first three weeks of the scheme doing training at SRUC’s Craibstone campus, near Aberdeen, before spending 27 weeks working on a farm with a mentor.
Mr Moir said: “The group this year has been outstanding. They are all very positive young men and women.”
Ringlink managing director, Graham Bruce, said the ring was working with SRUC and Skills Development Scotland to get the internship accredited into a pre-modern apprenticeship in agriculture. He said he hoped to achieve accreditation by the end of the year.
SRUC assistant principal, Kyrsten Black, said the scheme had the potential to benefit everyone in the industry.
She said: “SRUC needs to be meeting the requirements of the industry at a range of levels. I don’t think the industry will survive on farmers’ sons and daughters; the industry needs new blood.”
Ringlink’s intern scheme will run again once more this year and the machinery ring is hoping to secure extra funding to extend the number of places on offer from 12 to 18.
The youngster who graduated from the scheme are: Andrew Beattie, Ruth Beaton, Alannah Craig, Ben Franklin, Euan Gray, Russell Leslie, Lindsay Nelson, Craig Simpson, Harry Sleigh, Jordan Stewart and Liam Teunion.
