CAFRE’s ‘can do’ attitude is a great boost to prospective students

The College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) are encouraging prospective students to apply for their array of educational programmes in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Deirdre Cooper is the manager of CAFRE’s School Recruitment Team and is looking forward to hearing from prospective students.

CAFRE switched to delivering their courses, business support initiatives and training programmes remotely last month as the guidance on social distancing was put in place. But, in keeping with the College’s strong reputation for innovation in all aspects of their business they were able to switch to remote services easily.

This ‘can do’ approach has also been adopted by the CAFRE team responsible for showcasing what the College has on offer to prospective new recruits.

Deirdre Cooper manages CAFRE’s Schools Recruitment Team and she said: “We just wanted to let everyone know that although we are delivering our material away from our three campuses at the moment we are still very much welcoming new applicants to our courses.

“Normally at this time of year my team and I are busy visiting schools and speaking to Year 10’s about their subject choices for GCSE as well as attending career conventions. We’d also be preparing to be at the Balmoral Show and Garden Show Ireland to showcase what CAFRE has to offer. Sadly, that’s not be this year.

“Things have changed dramatically for us and everyone else in the last few weeks because of the lock down. We’ve adjusted to the new experience of working from home and are now very familiar with the connection methods that we’ve talked about using for years. Our meetings with careers teachers, prospective students are all conducted through social media, e-mail and we are moving towards using online presentations and webinars and virtual tours of the CAFRE sites.

“So, whilst our Schools Recruitment Team is not out and about at the moment, we are still very much able to connect with potential new students. As said, applications are open and those interested in Certificate and Diploma courses post-GCSE can apply online through the CAFRE website. Applications for degree courses through UCAS as a late applicant and then through the clearing system.

“We look forward to hearing from you and we’re at hand to help you in any way we can.”

If you have any questions the Schools Recruitment Team are available through the: enquiries@cafre.ac.uk and Freephone 0800 028 4291 or by personal messaging on our Facebook page. Please feel free to contact us – we would love to hear from you.

Notes to editors: 

1. The department may take photographs and videos at announcements and events to publicise its work. Photographs, interviews, videos or other recordings may be issued to media organisations for publicity purposes or used in promotional material, including in publications, newspapers, magazines, other print media, on television, radio and electronic media (including social media and the internet). Photographs and videos will also be stored on the department’s internal records management system. The department will keep the photographs and recordings for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which they have been obtained. The department’s Privacy Policy is available on our website.
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