We are thrilled with the response received for both the Women in Agriculture (WIA) and Women in Forestry (WIF) practical training fund’s! We have been proudly managing both funds and working closely with Lantra Scotland on the delivery of them.
The funds are established by the Scottish Government aimed to support personal development and provide more opportunities to women within the industries. By allowing women access to funding towards relevant training courses, the hope is that it will introduce even more women into the industries as well as advance the careers of those already working within them.
To meet the criteria for the funds, you have to be a woman residing in Scotland and working within or towards a career in either Forestry or Agriculture. There is a huge variety of courses involved such as DIY Artificial Insemination, safe use of pesticides, Sheepdog lessons, Chainsaw maintenance, Quad Bike training, Phone photography lessons and so much more!
You might be thinking why Phone photography lessons? Social media nowadays is one of the best marketing tools available to spread awareness of your business, therefore it has been accepted that mobile phones are an important tool for anyone self-employed. So if you run a small agriculture related business, it could of great benefit to know how to take great pictures to then post and promote your service or product. This is just one example of how diverse the courses involved in the funds are.
From our website you can see that we added the above badges to courses that were suitable for the fund’s however if someone was interested in something specific and it wasn’t on our website, we made it clear to contact us to discuss. We wanted to make sure that women were given the best opportunity to apply for the necessary training to progress their career. We therefore make it known that if the course required was not on our website or never had the badge, then we would do our best to sort this. Therefore if someone was interested in something specific they would complete an online form asking for details of the course and reasons why they feel it should be part of the fund. On receipt of the form, we would then investigate it further before either explaining why it couldn’t be involved or contact the training provider asking if they would be willing to join our platform. As a result, we welcomed several new training providers and were pleased to receive such positive feedback about the fund and their interest in getting involved!
Due to the overwhelming demand, the funds have now been paused. If you have missed out on the chance to apply during this round of funding, please click here to register your interest to be notified when the fund opens again. Unfortunately, we cannot give any indication as to when this will be however keep an eye out on socials for details.
If you are a trainer that wants to be involved in future funds, please visit our website at List a Course | SkillSeeder to see how you can or get in touch by emailing hello@skillseeder.com and we will be happy to help.