"My lecturers were a massive support and friendly faces to go to if I needed help."
Yasmin Brindle - Junior Agricultural Technician
I initially applied to Hadlow College to study a Level 3 course in Countryside Management. After completing a year of study, I decided it wasn’t for me and was going to apply to Mid Kent College for an Engineering course.
Shortly before leaving, I discovered that Hadlow offered an Agricultural Engineering course. Having no farming background, I was sceptical about how I would get on, but with the support and patience of the lecturers, I learnt much in my two years at Hadlow.
I think my favourite thing was the learning curve and challenges that this course presented me. Going from knowing nothing about tractors, I managed to acquire a certain degree of knowledge from the lecturers and then apply this to practical activities.
On top of this, my lecturers were a massive support and friendly faces to go to if I needed help. I don’t think I could have completed my course without their support.
Many memories were made at Hadlow, either in the classroom or the workshop. The study tours that were put on as part of the course were great fun. In my first year, we visited the JCB Factory, and the Jaguar/Land Rover Factory - the technology in both factories was amazing to see.
On completing this course, it was a massive career step, as without this qualification I wouldn't have been able to gain the job I have. I managed to get my current job through completing work experience at Haynes as part of the course.
Since leaving Hadlow, I have spent a large amount of my time on training, learning about New Holland tractors and JCBs; this has been spread between being on training courses and within the workshop, shadowing experienced technicians on how to diagnose and repair machinery. Now a year on, I am starting to go out on jobs unsupervised and am gaining new knowledge and experience each day. Being able to go out to certain jobs alone and being able to diagnose and repair has been a big career highlight for me so far.
My advice to anyone seeking a similar role to mine is, stick with it! Sometimes the learning curve can be extreme, but if you can knuckle down and focus on what you need to learn, you’ll excel. I would also like to advise my fellow girls that it doesn’t matter what negative comments people might have to say about your job, if it’s what you want to do, then prove them wrong and show them exactly what you can do.