Awards and qualifications
Developing Skills and Confidence
The people we support are eager to learn new skills and techniques. Alongside practical experience on the farm, we offer courses designed to build each person’s knowledge, confidence and potential.
Each course:
- Breaks learning into manageable stages
- Provides an inclusive and supportive environment
- Encourages both teamwork and independent learning
- Reinforces new knowledge through practical application on the farm
Inclusive Learning and Achievement
Our courses bring people together to learn, create and have fun while working towards recognised qualifications. We focus on ability rather than disability and assess each person’s individual needs.
We provide the physical, emotional or practical support required to help every participant take part in and succeed on their chosen course.
Current courses
Open Awards Horticulture Pilot
Dale Farm is piloting the Open Awards scheme, with plans to offer horticulture qualifications to everyone who wishes to participate. We are beginning with the Open Awards Level 1 Award in Horticulture and hope to progress to higher levels.
“Open Awards is an Awarding Organisation approved by Ofqual and an Access Validating Agency approved by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA). They provide Ofqual regulated qualifications and units across a range of sectors, QAA Access to Higher Education Diplomas and also offer bespoke quality endorsed units and flexible learning solutions”.
Open Awards
Assessment and Individual Support
The qualification is evidence-based and includes a range of modules delivered in a horticultural setting. To meet the assessment criteria, participants must provide their own evidence demonstrating the required:
- Knowledge
- Practical skills
- Understanding
To promote equal opportunities, anyone needing additional support is assigned a mentor. Two experienced former teachers and Dale Farm volunteers, Colin and Coral, currently guide participants through the course.
Current Participants
Lizzie and Paul are taking part in the pilot and working towards the Level 1 Open Award.
In order for Lizzie and Paul to become certified they must demonstrate with evidence various horticultural skills. Only a few of these skills are listed here:
- Prepare Ground for Sowing and Planting Under Supervision
- Apply Fertiliser by Hand to Bare Ground
- Care for a Planted Area
- Collect and Prepare Produce or Plant Material for Transport
- Construct a Composter Control Weeds in a Planted Area
- Cultivate Land by Single Digging or Forking
- Determine Soil pH with Colour Indicator Test Kit Under Supervision
- Establish an Even Gradient or Level between two Fixed Points
- Health and Safety in a Practical Environment
- Identify Annuals and Herbaceous Perennials
- Identify Trees and Shrubs Identify Weeds
- Introduction to Propagation of Plants
- etc.
Graduation Class of 2024
We are very pleased to announce that Lizzie and Paul have graduated from their Open Awards Level 1 in Horticulture course. You can read more about their graduation day.
Previous Courses: The John Muir Award
Students and volunteers previously completed the John Muir Award, an environmental programme that encourages people to connect with, enjoy and care for wild places.
About the Award
The John Muir Award is a non-competitive, inclusive and accessible programme for individuals, families and groups from all backgrounds. At Dale Farm, students and staff worked together to discover, explore and conserve the wild places surrounding the farm.
Skills and Wider Benefits
Through positive, real-life outdoor experiences, participants developed:
- Problem-solving and decision-making
- Creativity and communication
- Teamwork
The Award also introduced participants to outdoor, creative and countryside-based roles, broadening their horizons. Their activities provided evidence of experience and achievement for personal statements and interviews, supporting progress towards employment.
Outdoor and Environmental Learning
The Award used direct experiences of nature to explore sustainability and climate issues. Its Conserve Challenge promoted personal responsibility and showed participants how individual actions can make a positive difference.
This approach helped learners understand the effects of their choices and encouraged them to find solutions to local and global challenges involving sustainability, climate action and natural-resource management.
The Four Challenges
To achieve the John Muir Award, each participant completed activities addressing four connected challenges that built awareness, understanding and action:
- Discover a wild place, from school grounds to mountain tops.
- Explore it by experiencing and enjoying the setting while increasing awareness and understanding.
- Conserve it by taking action for wild places, nature and the climate.
- Share experiences by reflecting, reviewing and celebrating with others.
DISCOVER A WILD PLACE
We have explored some of the incredible land which surrounds Dale Farms, including the ‘Lower Meadow’, which leads into the Dales. The Lower Meadow is home to our bees and a beautiful range of wildflowers.
EXPLORE IT
We explored what grew in and around Dale Farm and why they did. We learnt the differences between different trees and plants and learnt to appreciate our natural environment as it flourishes.
DISCOVER A WILD PLACE
We have explored some of the incredible land which surrounds Dale Farms, including the ‘Lower Meadow’, which leads into the Dales. The Lower Meadow is home to our bees and a beautiful range of wildflowers.
Reflect with Others
The people we support are encouraged to reflect on their experiences, celebrate their achievements, build relationships with their community, staff and volunteers.
On the following images you can see the graduation day after our students received their certificates and some of the learning material and images taken during the course (we apologise there are not many images remaining from this time).
