A higher education course to provide farmers with the skills to work with people with disabilities has been launched by University College Cork (UCC). UCC’s Adult Continuing Education and Applied Social Science departments, in conjunction with the Skellig Centre for Research and Innovation (CRI), came together to offer a certificate in practice support in social farming.

Launching the UCC social farming course were Kerry farmers Breeda and Patrick O’Sullivan from Glencar who have participated in social farming with Breada O’Sullivan.

The one-year programme will provide students with the skills to work with people with disability both on social farms and in a community setting.

Social farming is currently operating in most counties in Ireland. Kerry Social Farming is run on a voluntary basis and currently operates on 19 farms across Kerry.

For further information contact the programme co-ordinator and manager of Skellig CRI, Belinda Gascoigne by email skelligcri@ucc.ie