We take magnificent pride in our Youth Development Programme which gives young people the chance to learn a wide range of different skills, all while making great friends along the way. The summer is fast approaching which means there’ll be a busy programme of Youth Development workshops for people aged between 8 – 24 to enjoy.
The workshops cover the array of skills needed for turning out the best possible cattle for shows and sales, including everything from clipping and dressing to halter work and ring craft. Our workshops cater for young people of all different abilities. If you’re a beginner with not much experience, we can focus on building confidence through hands-on work with the cattle, making sure that everyone taking part gets to try their hand at everything. For those who are of higher levels of experience with regard to cattle preparation we have many other exciting opportunities, including the chance to qualify for our Youth Development Final which has a £2,500 cash prize fund. People aged over 19 can also compete to win a trip to study about the Aberdeen-Angus breed anywhere in the world, presenting a great opportunity to further their development in a completely different culture and learn more about the breed. We also work closely with the Duchy Agricultural College to offer a City & Guilds Award as part of our Youth Development Programme.
Our workshops also involve stock judging which not only teaches participants about what they should be looking for in an animal, but also helps them with forming their own opinions. When explaining reasons for their stock judging decisions, the young people also get the chance to develop their public speaking skills and build personal confidence.
Our Youth Development Programme Co-ordinator, Gayle Bersey, believes that as well as having great educational benefits for young participants, the workshops give the youngsters the chance to have some great social experiences and make some true friends who share their interests. Gayle mentions:
‘’One of the most important things about these events is the social side. These events get them mixing and mingling and making contacts that last a lifetime, and will be helpful in their future paths in life. The thing that makes it easy is that they all love what they do so there is an automatic common starting point. It’s great to see people arriving not knowing anyone, and then leaving having interacted with everyone and made many new friends.’’
You can view a list of all the summer workshops here.
We’re looking forward to another successful summer of workshops and will be keeping you posted along the way!