LandSkills North East

To get your hands on the money you must be based in either Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Durham or Tees Valley and be a:

• Farmer
• Forestry business owner or contractor
• Agricultural contractor
• Farm or forestry employee (including migrant worker)

You must run, own or work in a business spending at least 50% of your time in, and/or be dependent upon, agriculture or forestry.

You can get funded training for:

• Reducing costs and improving productivity through more efficient work practices and resource management
• Technical skills
• Compliance with new legislation including animal health and welfare and nutrient management
• Managing woodlands for fuel and economic benefit
• Leadership, business and financial management.

We currently work with 5 training providers who deliver LandSkills funded training:

• The National Animal Disease Information Service (NADIS)
• EFFP
• Northwoods
• RAFT Solutions
• Scottish Agricultural College

Simply contact us on 08452 788800 for help in finding the best provider for you or download the full list of training providers for more details.

We work with an Assessment Panel made up of people and representatives from your industry to steer LandSkills North East 

Together we go through applications from providers who want to deliver LandSkills funded training to make sure the training proposed reflects Defra priorities, represents value for money and delivers what agricultural and forestry businesses need

The Assessment Panel can approve outright or with conditions or decline training proposals

We manage LandSkills North East as part of the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE).

RDPE 2007-13 is jointly funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and Defra and has a budget of £3.9 billion.

£3.3 billion of this budget will help farmers to manage the land more sustainably and deliver important outcomes on biodiversity, landscape and access, water quality and climate change.

Some £600 million will help make agriculture and forestry more competitive and sustainable and enhance opportunity in rural areas.

Visit the defra website for more information.

Q.  I want to go a course that is not a LandSkills approved provider can I get LandSkills funding?
A. Normally LandSkills wouldn’t be able to fund training where a funding agreement does not exist. However under exceptional circumstances, e.g. for specific higher level training, an individual application may be possible.

Q. Does LandSkills fund legislative training?
A. Legislative training may be supported, however the LandSkills contribution will be lower than 70%.  LandSkills will pay for the course but not the statutory test e.g. trailer test, which will need to be paid for directly by the trainee.

Q.  How can I get LandSkills updates?
A.  Register on the LandSkills website, to receive email updates and the LandSkills newsletter or follow us on Twitter.