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

emained to be done, the foundation for a productive relationship between the
Board and Lackham College had been laid, to enable both to work together for the
benefit of the Agricultural Industry.
The first Chairman of the new Area Training Committee was Mr M M Mortimer of
Broughton Gifford and the first meeting was held in Devizes in May 1970. At that
meeting, working parties were set up to produce a programme of training courses in
the county in conjunction with Lackham College. At a subsequent meeting in July of
the same year, a programme was approved and later agreed with the L.E.A., for
direct payment by the Board. Since that time, a steady progress has been made
and whereas in 1970 a programme of approximately 10 x 1 and 2 day courses were
run, in 1976, at the time of writing, this figure is approaching 60 courses, involving
almost 200 trainees (from April 1975 to April 1976) of all ages. These courses
covered many skills including calving cows using a plastic simulator, the operation
and maintenance of chain saws and the use of the metric system in the farm office.
Similar progress can be recorded in the County in the recruitment of young people
into formal training schemes. The attached graph shows the numbers of formal
apprentices under the old scheme, from 1953 to 1971 and from that year onward
under the new A.T.B. scheme. From the graph again it may be seen that the years
1970/71 saw the real increase in apprentice trainee numbers in the county. A
number of developments contributed to this, including the formal adoption by the
Industry of a wages structure based on Proficiency Tests and the reconstitution
of the A.T.B.
While it was becoming clear that the consistent labour shedding of the previous 20
years in agriculture, which had made the old apprenticeship scheme so difficult to
operate in a county like Wiltshire with its rapid farm mechanisation progress, could
not continue indefinitely at the same rate, it was also apparent to many progressive
farmers that mechanisation had brought its own labour problems. Many tasks now
are carried out on the farm by highly skilled men operating sophisticated and
complex machinery in isolation and a trainee, especially a 16 year old, can be at
least an expensive luxury, at most an acceptable liability in such situations. Hence
more and more training has to be done "off the job" in a learning situation.
It was with this problem in mind that the first Initial (i.e. basic) Training Course
was held at Lackham in 1974, when a small group of about 12 school leavers, just
about to enter farm employment, were given a fortnight's intensive instruction in
the basic farm skills of tractor driving and livestock handling. The course was
jointly sponsored by the County Council and the A.T.B. and judged to be successful.
A further course was held in 1975 and two such courses are planned for 1976. The
time may well come when all young entrants to agriculture will require some sort of
basic instruction along these lines.[i]