 hand those where the days. Now if you've ever considered doing some organic farming or maybe even making a business out of it, the organic centre in Ross Inver is very shortly starting a year-long level five course and it's a fantastic centre. It's at Ross Inver which is near Manor Hamilton, not far from Balochand, Bondorn and famous around the country as being a pioneer charity that specialises in promoting all things organic and sustainable and they've been doing that for over 27 years. Well I'm delighted that the tutor on this new course joins us now. Ingrid Foley, good afternoon Ingrid. Good afternoon, how are you? Good, good now. Organic farming, we're going to be seeing a lot more of it and enjoying a lot more of the products in the coming years because the EU have set a target for 2030. But that's correct, just to kind of be very specific, we're actually horticulture, we specialise in organic horticulture as opposed to farming in general, that's the course that's kind of focused on fruit and vegetables but yeah, yeah there's a big drive to increase the area under organic production nationally, you know, all in relation to, it's part of the program for government but it's also that we meet our commitments in terms of our environmental commitments in relation to reducing the amount of carbon emissions that we're producing as a country currently and organic growing, farming is one of the ways of actually doing that. So yeah the course itself which is starting on the 6th of March actually so not too far away at all and as I said it focuses on organic horticulture, so the production of organic fruit and vegetables and we've been running the course for a very long time now over 15 years and the candidates who are successful that actually get their qualifications or QQ level 5 qualification, they go into various areas or can go into various areas in the organic sphere whether that's into business for themselves, we've several students who went on to be growers and one of our ex-students is currently the head gardener here at the centre now if you just want me to tell you a little bit about the course I can describe what it's all about for your listeners. Yeah so it's a full year from March until the following year and it consists of nine modules and now I won't list them all off because I'd only bore you to tears but they can be anything from soil science all the way through to a newish module that we have in the last two years on biodiversity and the environment which is a very current issue at the moment so it's a good balance between academic and classroom learning and practical hands-on experience which is what the students enjoy the most is actually learning by doing and we have all the facilities here for doing that with every aspect of organic horticulture is catered for here we have the outdoor veg production, outdoor fruit area, big orchard and we have all our polytons as well for protected crops and they're all managed organically and sustainably so yeah it's a it's a year-long commitment so people have and it's nine to five Monday to Friday five days a week and you will be here at the centre you will get your hands dirty oh my god you most certainly will you'll have lots of dirt under your fingernails if you don't wear gloves which yeah you will get your hands very dirty and your feet and your boots muddy there's no two ways like that but I just say it's a mix of being in the outdoors or in polytons and also some classroom learning yes yeah it would be approximately half and half or even a little bit more outdoor sort of 40 60 it depends what stage of the year that we're at and what subjects we're actually teaching and but yeah as I say there is the academic element but the hands-on learning is probably the most beneficial to students because that's what they you know that's what a lot of them will go on to do is to actually be working in the field all right or certainly be able to be to have those skills that they can indeed pass on themselves to other people if they go on to teacher if they go on to further qualification and ultimately and to become tutors again in on this course for example and it's another is another avenue that people can go down once they graduate right and and how can people get more information where could they go to is there a website they can go on to our website the organic center website www.theorganiccenter.ie or they can go on to the MS letb website where they can apply to the course directly there's also a link on the organic website to apply for the course so it's one it's funded by the it's funded by the ETB the Mayo Sligo Litron Education Training Board you have the equivalent one up up your neck at the ones as well and the course is fully funded and in addition to that preference will be given to people who are in receipt of social welfare so if you're in receipt of social welfare you'll continue to get that social welfare obviously right throughout the course of the year and but yeah it's fully funded so if you're coming on the course without a social welfare payment you're more than welcome but you'll have to fund yourself if you like you know just for you know getting by on a week-to-week basis but the actual course itself is funded fully funded by the ETB so yeah either go on to the organic center website to apply for the course and you'd want to do fairly soon because the interviews would be held on the 16th of February and or as I say go on to the MMS LETB website to apply for the course all right and it gets underway in March so thanks Ingrid yes yeah the 6th of March we're starting brilliant okay best look with it thanks Ingrid okay thanks a million take it easy bye bye bye