The Claas Agricultural Apprenticeship continues to go from strength to strength with a total of 12 students this year graduating at the end of their four-year course.

Claas is the only major agricultural machinery manufacturer to offer a specific apprenticeship course. based in Scotland at SRUC Barony campus, which runs in parallel with the course based at Reaseheath College in Cheshire.

Graduation ceremonies were recently held for the latest group of students, with four graduating from the course based at Barony campus and eight graduating from the Reaseheath College course.

During their four year apprentice training course, the students have worked towards a National Diploma in Land Based Technology and an advanced technical and industry certificate. In addition to time spent at Reaseheath and Barony, the students have also worked at the Claas Group headquarters in Harsewinkel, Germany and the Claas UK headquarters at Saxham, near Bury St Edmunds. This has given them a valuable insight into the size and scale of the global business, which has 14 plants worldwide and employs over 10,000 people.

The firm places emphasis on training skilled technicians and developing career opportunities across the company. Having qualified, the young technicians now have access to training and development pathways aligned to the Land-based Technicians Accreditation (LTA) Scheme, enabling them to further broaden their skill set.

At the start of their apprenticeship, the students enrolled at LTA level 1. Having completed their course, they are now eligible for LTA2 (Service Engineer) and with further dealer experience and CLAAS training, they will have the opportunity to reach LTA 3 (Master Mechanic) or even LTA 4 (Master Technician) status.

This autumn, a record 30 students from across the UK and Ireland joined the scheme the Claas Agricultural Apprenticeship.

Of these, two are the first to study as part of a new Parts Apprenticeship. As with service technicians, there is a shortage of young knowledgeable and experienced parts personnel coming up through the industry. It is in order to address this that Claas UK, in a joint initiative with AGCO, has established the Parts (Sales and Marketing) Apprenticeship, which will be run alongside the Technician course at Reaseheath College.

CLAAS is the only UK agricultural machinery company to offer two training bases for its technician apprentices, and in addition to the 13 studying at SRUC Barony campus, a further 17 will be training at Reaseheath College in Cheshire.

Both groups of Claas engineering students will be amongst the first to study for the new Extended Diploma in Landbased Technology. This high level vocational qualification has been introduced to meet the Government’s calling for training programmes to better meet employer’s requirements.

In addition to time spent at Barony or Reaseheath College, the students will also work at the CLAAS Group headquarters in Harsewinkel, Germany and the CLAAS UK headquarters at Saxham, so they can get a real feel for the size of the company, which employs about 11,000 people in 14 plants worldwide.

Having qualified, the young technicians will have access to training and development pathways aligned to the Landbased Technicians Accreditation (LTA) Scheme, which will enable them to progress their skill base further. Having attained LTA level 2 status, with additional dealer experience and CLAAS training, they will have the opportunity to reach LTA 3 (Master Mechanic) or even LTA 4 (Master Technician) status.