RXW39

December 14, 2022

For our final Rural Week of 2022 the Royal Navy, Army, and RAF were all represented, and we welcomed 8 HighGrounders who had found out about us via Google, Facebook and their Resettlement Officers – a broad church in every sense!

Our team at Bicton of Chris Shepherd and Pete Boorn were joined by Anna and Tim for another action-packed programme to introduce our HighGrounders to employment and self-employment opportunities in the land-based sector.

Rural Weeks begin on Sunday afternoon so we can get all the admin out of the way and Monday morning starts with Chris’s Introduction to the Week which sets the scene.

After Andy Daw’s excellent presentation about Plant Operations and Agricultural Engineering it was off in the minibus to visit Toby at Aylesbeare Common to learn about RSPB and the role of a Ranger.

Next stop was Lord Clinton’s Head of Forestry and Energy John Wilding, to introduce Forestry on Clinton Devon Estates, a private estate and then to Woodbury Park golf course for Terry and Andy’s introduction to Greenkeeping – and that was just Day One..!

An early start on Tuesday to visit Pete Wastenage at his award-winning Tidwell Barton Farm and learn about the dairy industry with working for yourself thrown in.

Josh and Gregg at Haldon Forest Park described working for Forestry England and in the afternoon Chris had arranged a visit to a Vegetable and Crop Production unit with Rodney and his terrier.

Back to Bicton for online sessions with Zoe from Careers in Racing to introduce the wide range of careers in the thoroughbred racing and breeding industries, and then Ross who had joined us for a Rural Week while he was still serving in the Army and is now working on an estate in Yorkshire spoke about his transition and what he is doing now.

After tea, we were delighted to welcome Jeremy Gibbs from Forces Farming as our evening speaker. He gave a fascinating presentation about opportunities in Agriculture and we are so grateful to him for travelling to Bicton, especially as the football was on…

Another early start on Wednesday to meet Tom, Lord Clinton’s Wildlife Ranger and then to Killerton House to meet Karl and learn about Heritage Gardening.

Forest School with Neil slowed the pace down, but then it was back to Bicton to join Steve and his team for Practical Plant Operations.

Our evening speaker was Jeff Green who talked about Dry Stone Walling – thanks Jeff!!

The final full day of visits was Thursday which started with Debbie and her animals at South Yeo Farm West to talk all things Smallholding.

Then to Budleigh Riding School to meet Army veteran Rob and learn about equine management and again, working for yourself, a theme which runs through the entire week.

Back to Bicton for another terrific session from Matt and Kirsty about the Arboriculture industry and our final presentation of the day was Ian from Bowler Oakfield to discuss estate management.

Jamie Ranson, another Rural Week alumni who now has his own business spoke eloquently on Friday morning about the challenges of self-employment, and we offer our profound thanks to everyone who hosted, presented and spoke during the Rural Week and shared their knowledge, contacts and experience so generously – truly HighGround in action.

Last Word:

Without doubt the best resettlement course I have attended.

It was so validating to spend time with like-minded service leavers.

The format of the week allowed us to talk not just about land-based roles, but also about leaving the military in general, which was so reassuring. The ‘Standard’ resettlement courses seem to prepare you for working in big companies in the City, and so if you want to work outdoors then the normal resettlement doesn’t seem worthwhile or relevant. So, this course plugged a huge gap in my resettlement preparation.

Army officer at the end of resettlement.

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