The National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs is working with Warwickshire Young Farmers’ Clubs and Farming & Countryside Education (FACE) to develop new ways of forging mutually beneficial links between YFCs and schools.

The organisations this week announced they have developed a new workshop, which will help equip Young Farmers’ Clubs members with the tools they need to broaden students’ understanding of the agricultural industry. From this Autumn YFC members will go into schools and promote work in the agricultural industry, covering potential careers and opportunities available through agricultural colleges.

The scheme’s developers said that, if it proves successful, the pilot scheme, which works on a peer mentoring model, may be expanded to include farm walks as part of Cardinal Wiseman School’s environmental and land-based GCSE course, and possibly even to include sixth-form students who are considering attending agricultural colleges.

The pilot resulted from NFYFC co-sponsoring the first School Farms Network conference in July; the Young Farmers said it also plans to explore the possibility of creating an in-school YFC at the Coventry school.