Charlotte was awarded an Education Apprenticeship and Training Bursary in consecutive years. Growing up on a farm in Birtley parish she had recently become more involved with decision making about feeding, breeding and forage making on the family farm and had the desire to leave school at 16 and move away for further education. She attended Askham Bryan College, York and undertook a Level 3 NVQ Advanced Technical (Arable) Agriculture, which was a two year course.
As the college was in Yorkshire with four teaching days per week she was able to travel home with the help of her parents in the first year and retained her weekend and holiday work locally to assist with funding. Charlotte used the EAT Bursary helped to fund travel costs, equipment required for her course and general living costs associated with living away from home.
Charlotte hopes to use the course as a stepping stone into another further education course or to pursue a career in agriculture, in the meantime the skills gained will help at home on the family farm.
The Education Apprenticeship and Training Bursary can be awarded for up to three years with decreasing grants from first year to third. There is a simplified application process and decisions can be made on an application within a matter of a week if the information received in the application is straightforward.
