Fitting part-time study around busy home life with CAFRE
Date published:
The College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) delivers a part-time Agricultural Business Operations (ABO) course for those seeking to develop their knowledge of agriculture with the opportunity to attain a formal qualification.
Course Manager, Kenneth Johnston commented: “The Level 2 Certificate course continues to be very popular with part-time learners. This year we have 180 students enrolled on the course. The training is delivered one evening per week over 20 weeks and can be studied at any one of the three college campus sites. Learners select to study course content to specialise in beef, sheep, crops or dairying.”
Lorraine Montgomery from Aughnacloy, Co Tyrone is completing the beef production course at Greenmount Campus. “I am really enjoying the course and learning a lot from it. Having grown up on a beef suckler farm in Co Fermanagh, I always wanted to farm. Recently my husband inherited some land, and we have started to develop the farm by buying in beef store heifers which we fatten and sell at 24 months of age” commented Lorraine.
“Even though I was from a farm I realised that to maximise the potential from our recently established farming enterprise I needed to improve my farming knowledge. I decided to enrol on the Level 2 in Agricultural Business Operations course offered by CAFRE. It suits me to attend in the evening classes, as I work part-time as a Cardiac Rehabilitation Specialist Nurse and I am also a mum to two small boys,” added Lorraine.
“Most of the course is delivered online which suits my busy schedule. However, I especially enjoy the times when we meet face to face on campus or attend farm visits. It is great to meet up with other likeminded people. We have a class of 30 people, and we come from different backgrounds and have varying reasons to be there. I have benefitted from the whole course, especially the soil nutrient management module which has been particularly useful when considering our grassland management. I have no hesitation in recommending the course to anyone interested in agriculture and hoping to achieve a worthwhile qualification” concluded Lorriane.
For more information on the course visit the CAFRE website.
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