There is a shortage of staff for delivering short courses at the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE), a DAERA spokesperson has confirmed.

“The industry training team currently has a number of vacancies and has initiated a recruitment process to fill the vacant posts,” the spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal.

Local farmers have indicated there are long waiting lists for short courses at CAFRE. In particular, there are significant delays with the safe use of sheep dip course which is a compulsory requirement for purchasing dip in NI.

Aside from a shortage of staff, a further issue contributing to the delays is the number of students who require industry training as part of Further Education (FE) courses. “There is currently a high demand for CAFRE short course training driven by the high number of agriculture students enrolled on FE programmes, who will be given priority, coupled with external industry requests,” the DAERA spokesperson said.

Other options outside of CAFRE are available for local farmers who want to get certified in the likes of the safe use of pesticides or sheep dip.

“A range of private sector organisations in NI provide short training courses in agriculture,” the department spokesperson said.