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

plus a good deal of valuable teaching equipment. This course is still running and
attracts an intake of around 16 per course.
It has been found over the years that some students were not entirely workshop
biased, but had expressed a view that more "farm mechanisation"
would be helpful to them. In order to satisfy this need, a one year course in Farm
Mechanisation was introduced in 1967 and ran for three years with small numbers.
The latter part of the 1960s saw a change taking place concerning agricultural
education generally, with the suggestion of O.N.D. and H.N.D. courses being
introduced. These were to be sandwich type courses with a minimum educational
standard of four '0' levels or equivalent being needed for O.N.D. and 'A' level for
H.N.D. in one or more subjects.
It was considered at length by the Lackham staff what should be offered at the
College and after long and detailed discussion, it was decided to offer an O.N.D.
Course in Farm Mechanisation.
The previous experience gained from the one year approach proved most helpful
and it is pleasing to note that the O.N.D. in Farm Mechanisation, started in 1970,
has been successful for over seven courses.
It would not be a complete record of what the Machinery Department staff have
done over the years if the valuable work done in centres all over the County on day
release work was omitted.
The course for Agricultural Mechanics held at Trowbridge, Salisbury and Swindon
were run for varying periods, the longest being at Salisbury for 11 years. It was
decided that it would be more beneficial to the apprentices and reduce travelling
costs if the instruction was offered on a Block Release system at Lackham. The
changeover started in 1967 and is running at the present time very successfully.
A good deal of work is done for Young Farmers' Clubs and for the various Training
Boards on short courses at Lackham and also on farm locations.
Advice to students and parents is given at all times and it is very
gratifying to know that many ex-Lackham students are bringing their own
sons and daughters for interviews on careers linked with agriculture and
allied industries. [i]