Rural Skills (SfW) National 4

What is special about this course?

This introductory, hands-on course will help you develop the skills and gain knowledge needed for work in the land-based industries. You will experience some of the basic practical skills needed to work in agriculture and other land-based industries.

Entry requirements

You don’t need passes in specific subjects to join this course, but you need a positive attitude and you should be willing to learn new skills, and undertake a successful interview.

You will be given the opportunity to investigate the nature of some of the very diverse industries of the land-based industries and also to examine some of the job opportunities of the sector. There is then a choice of a plant or an animal route where you can develop some of the basic skills for the chosen route. You will also become familiar with a range of hand tools and be given an opportunity to participate in a range of handyman tasks which are common to many of the land based industries from plumbing repairs to fence repairs.

This course has three mandatory units and two optional units.

The mandatory Units are:

♦Land-based Industries: an Introduction

♦Estate Maintenance

♦Employability Skills in the Land-based sector - 0.5 Unit credit

The optional Units are:

♦Animal Husbandry: an Introduction

♦Animal Handling: an Introduction - 0.5 Unit credit

OR

♦Crop Production: an Introduction

♦Soft Landscaping: an Introduction - 0.5 Unit credit

If you choose the animal route you will be given the opportunity to learn the skills for some of the basic tasks of maintaining the health and well-being of one species of animal (horses, sheep, cattle, pigs, poultry, game birds, small cage companion mammals, dogs, cats or farmed fish) in a simulated commercial or a commercial setting. You will also learn the basic skills of handling and restraining one species of animal in a commercial or simulated commercial setting.

If you choose the plant route, you will be given the opportunity to learn the basic skills required to produce a crop from seed to harvest. This will be delivered in the context of horticulture (both edible and non-edible), agriculture, or tree nurseries for forestry. You will also be given the opportunity to learn the basic skills of caring for plants including weed control, pest control, fertilising and pruning, in the context of countryside or estate management, or landscape horticulture.

Fees

For the latest information on fees please see our fees policy.