The Landworkers’ Alliance is a union of farmers, growers, foresters and land-based workers.

Feedback for us

If you have any comments, critiques, considerations, compliments, complaints, about anything the Landworkers Alliance is or isn’t up to, do let us know your thought. We love feedback, it keeps a system healthy. Please fill in this quick form.

Membership / Supporter / Donation Queries

Please contact Lauren.Simpson@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk

Requests for work, volunteering or internships

We are currently not recruiting for any roles but please read our newsletters for any announcements. We currently do not offer any volunteer or internship placements directly with the LWA, but keep an eye out in the newsletter or on the forum for any members looking for volunteers or workers.

Academic/Research Enquiries

Please look at the Agroecology Research Collaboration to see if it fits your area of research/work.

Membership Support / Advice

Currently the LWA does not have capacity or resources to help individual members or potential members on their specific projects, farms or programmes. We get a lot of requests for individual support and would love to have the time to respond to each request in full. We are fundraising for a new role for somebody to focus on membership support and services as we have identified it is a gap in our offering so please watch this space. Having said that, if your query is critical and urgent please email info@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk including the word URGENT in the subject header and it will get picked up and we can try our best to help.

Contacting Individual Staff

Please take the time to explore our staff page here to see who the most relevant contact for your enquiry is.

Our addresses format is firstname.lastname@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk

Please bear in mind we all work part time and have limited capacity to respond to enquiries outside our core areas of work.

You can also find information under the About Us header about branch and regional organising, and identity groups within the LWA membership.

Press/Media Enquiries:

For any queries relating to press please email press@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk

Merchandise/calendar Enquiries

For any enquiries to do with shop sales including the calendar please email merchandise@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk

To Include an Item in Our Newsletter:

You can fill in this quick form to submit it to be included in the next bulletin/newsletter. The deadline to submit is the end of Friday each week for the following week’s member bulletin. With the same form you can also submit to the monthly non-member newsletter which goes out in the first week of the month.

All Other Enquiries:

For any other enquiries that are URGENT please email info@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk with the word ‘urgent’ in the subject header and we will do our best to help.

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Traineeships

 

TRAINEESHIPS

On-farm traineeships, where new entrants work alongside an experienced farmer, grower or forester for one or two seasons, are an important entry route into land-based work and play the role of an informal apprenticeship for many people.
We are working with members offering traineeships to improve the coherence of training provided and to group members in the same area together to provide collective delivery of theoretical elements to organise farm visits and exchanges. By doing this we aim to improve the training experience and ensure that the quality of training is high.
We are working with partners including the Soil Association and Organic Growers Alliance on a jointly endorsed curriculum for horticulture traineeships. This will help members to be clear about the knowledge and skills a trainee needs to develop, and will give trainees an overview of what they can expect to cover.
Our guide to setting up an on-farm traineeship can be found here.
We have also developed a suggested curriculum for what you can expect to cover during a traineeship in horticulture. Our online version with links to resources for self-directed learning can be found here (English) and here (Cymraeg) and a printable version here (English) and here (Cymraeg). We’ve jointly developed this resource with the Organic Growers Alliance and Soil Association, with funding from Resilient Green Spaces.

 

South West Traineeship Pilot
We are developing an agroecology curriculum and programme of horticultural training in the South West of England. We have funding for a two year pilot, and will be running a programme in the summer of 2021 and 2022.
Why should your farm take part?
The pilot programme is free and as a farm hosting a trainee, you will participate in online sessions led by Angela Raffle and Nikki Yoxall, experts in adult education and training to help build your confidence and skills as a trainer.
What’s in it for your trainees?
Six training days will be available in the 2021 season. These will cover the roots of the food sovereignty movement and practical topics such as soil science and seed saving. Trainees will get to meet each other, get connected and access support in the development of their future plans.
For more info contact lucy.saville@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk

 

Wales Future Farmers Training Network
For information about the 2022 Programme, please see the Welsh and English documents.
LWA has been working with Lantra to pilot a network for on-farm trainees working in Welsh horticulture. We aim to teach key skills, discuss overcoming barriers to being a grower and to connect trainees to the wider agroecological movement, giving the confidence and connections they need to continue in horticulture. Through dedicated teaching time and input from both new and more established growers, the network aims to build upon trainees’ on-farm learning, and encourage more growers to take on trainees.

The pilot is due to finish at the end of this season and we are currently looking into ways to continue the network.

If you are a trainee or a grower who hosts trainees based in Wales, and would like to get involved in the network, email rhian.williams@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk

The network is part of the Resilient Green Spaces partnership, a £1.27m project led by Social Farms & Gardens to pilot alternative re-localised food systems using communities and their green spaces as the driving force for change across Wales until June 2023.

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