History of Agricultural Education in Wiltshire - Lackham Countryside ...

due to the facilities which it possesses and the various skills of the staff. This has been
important in that the 'spin off can be seen in the teaching methods and syllabus content of
most City and Guilds educational courses. The Agricultural Training Board has encouraged
employers to release their young employees not only to training courses, but also to
Educational courses following a recognised national syllabus. It does this by means of a small
grant in respect of each day's attendance at Day Release by an employee.
Stockmen's Clubs were initiated in 1969/70 to replace conventional evening classes and by
their relaxed informal atmosphere have attracted many a keen stockman to their meetings.
1975 - 1976
The prospectus for this year shows the continued presence of formal day release classes at
Lackham. A noticeable feature this year has been the growth of one day training courses in
specific skills — these days are either specific training days for young new entrants to the
Industry or, perhaps more encouraging still, courses for adult workers facing new
responsibilities or new machines. Altogether some 30O new 'students' came into contact
with Lackham as a result of this development in 1975/76
Fashion change! In the 1960's and early 1970's, there was a vogue for Farm Management
courses. This was met both by the traditional City and Guilds course with a minimum
content of 120 hours class contact and short sharp three to five day courses dealing with
more specific aspects. This interest has largely been replaced in the 1970's with the
training courses referred to above.
A lot of work is now done by day, very little during the evening - a far cry from the
beginnings of Extra Mural, which was all evening work. [i]
AGRICULTURAL EXTRA MURAL DEPARTMENT 1966 – 1967
SESSION
STAGE I - GENERAL AGRICULTURE
Part-time Day Release Classes, 24 weeks duration.
1st Year 2nd Year Total
Chippenham 10 11 21
Swindon 14 - 14
Salisbury 17 9 26
Marlborough 9 9