Watch: Is a part-time degree the ideal option for farmers?
Students studying the part time BSc (Hons) in Agriculture at Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT), graduated from the level eight course this week.
The part-time course gives people the opportunity to pursue an education while working full time.
A majority of the students studying this part-time course are already farmers themselves looking to improve their skills and get a higher qualification.
The course offers a blend of in-person classes that take place on Tuesday and Thursday evenings as well as one to two Saturday workshops per semester.
Dr. Siobhán Jordan, head of the agriculture department in DkIT told Agriland at the graduation ceremony that the course offers students the opportunity to obtain full time positions.
“We have people going into research and going into advisory roles, again going into the food agricultural sector and so there's huge opportunities for students," she said.
Olivia Hennigan, a suckler farmer from Roscommon told Agriland that getting this degree got her “foot in the door to lecturing”, a dream job of hers.
“I love trying to help people and I love trying to pass on any bit of knowledge I have plus when you are lecturing you're constantly trying to enhance your own.”
Hennigan advises anyone who is considering the agriculture degree to “do it, do it and do it.”
She said: “Don’t let age, children, work [stop you]; have no excuses, have no regrets; just go do it sure, if you don't get it no big deal but if you do get it you'll be giving yourself a huge clap in the back.”
Balance
Many students in the agriculture course are full time farmers who are balancing college with every day farming tasks.
Chicken and beef farmer Frank Evans said: “It's tricky enough, but the fact that it's part-time and it's online a bit, it does help you know.
“You have to be structured in your day, just be sure that you're available at 5 o'clock in the evening to get online you know, that sort of thing.”
Evans explains how beneficial the agriculture degree is for people working full-time and how flexible it can be.
“Most people haven't had the opportunity to do something part-time and now this is structured in such a way that it gives you that opportunity to do it.
“I would have loved to have done this course 20 years ago but the part-time option wasn't available at that time you know.”
From farm to classroom
Gerard Sherlock, a dairy farmer from Monaghan, always had an interest in education, having gone straight into farming after he left secondary school, he always had it in the back of his mind to go back.
Sherlock said he learned different aspects of farming that he wouldn't have known before.
“There were some modules that came a lot more natural - the likes of dairy farming and herd health and stuff like that," he said.
"Other stuff maybe about farm business or entrepreneurship and all that kind of stuff which is part of it too and that," he added.
