A career in gamekeeping

[carlosmingos 0]

Hi everyone, just seeking a bit of advice from those of you in the know.

 

A mate of mine does a bit of part time gamekeeping and has been looking for a full time keepers job for a year or so with little success. I'm keen to get into gamekeeping myself but he's warning me off it as he says there's a glut of young lads that've done dedicated gamekeeping courses and are then working as £50 pw apprentices for a couple of years, leaving few vacancies for guys seeking to gain further experience without a qualification behind them and still wanting to earn a living.

 

Is this accurate countrywide? Is a qualification particularly favoured/valued by the majority of estates/shoots? Obviously it shows commitment to the craft, but I'm hoping to prove this by gaining experience with several different keepers. As a 30 yr old married man, I'd prefer not to have to stop work for a year or two to go to college, but if it's really going to help then I'm going to take the plunge.

 

Just trying to canvass opinion. Any pointers/advice would be most welcome.

 

Cheers

[hillkeeper101 0]

Don't want to put you off mate but its a big leap with no certainty that you'll get a job . college courses are'nt the be all and end all ,try getting intouch with a few local keepers and do abit weekend work if you prove to be a grafter they will no doubtidly put in a good word for you thats better than any college paper .

 

best of luck

[danw 1,748]

Hi everyone, just seeking a bit of advice from those of you in the know.

 

A mate of mine does a bit of part time gamekeeping and has been looking for a full time keepers job for a year or so with little success. I'm keen to get into gamekeeping myself but he's warning me off it as he says there's a glut of young lads that've done dedicated gamekeeping courses and are then working as £50 pw apprentices for a couple of years, leaving few vacancies for guys seeking to gain further experience without a qualification behind them and still wanting to earn a living.

 

Is this accurate countrywide? Is a qualification particularly favoured/valued by the majority of estates/shoots? Obviously it shows commitment to the craft, but I'm hoping to prove this by gaining experience with several different keepers. As a 30 yr old married man, I'd prefer not to have to stop work for a year or two to go to college, but if it's really going to help then I'm going to take the plunge.

 

Just trying to canvass opinion. Any pointers/advice would be most welcome.

 

Cheers

 

 

I am afraid when it comes to keepering the job market is f****d these colleges keep on churning out lads with qualifications promising a job at the end but the fact is that there just isn't the jobs for those that want them given that a lot of good experienced keepers have been made redundant just of late as well just makes it harder, not many keepers are moving about at the moment either making the best of what they have rather than risk moving and it possibly being no better.Employers are also being careful cause most are sick to death of taking on lads as want to keeper then they jack after 6 months cause they can't hack it there the ones as you here say"used to do a bit of the keepering when I was younger" for that read either they where shite keepers or couldn't take the work.

 

All of the above said if you really want it and are prepared for the shit you will get as you start out and are going to stick at it then good luck and I hope you get the job you want

[carlosmingos 0]

Thanks for the words of wisdom guys. Sounds tough at the mo. It's a path I'd love to take but I'll heed your warnings and be sure to proceed with caution. Any particular experience that makes someone stand out? Or more a case of having the right attitude and personality? My old man's a farmer and struggles to get good farm workers. Lots of lazy bar stewards with bits of paper but don't want to do the work, as he puts it! He'd rather take on a guy with the right attitude and teach him all he needs to know like in the old days. Thats how I'd like to learn too but I guess it's different these days...

 

God, I sound like a right old fart!!

[danw 1,748]

Thanks for the words of wisdom guys. Sounds tough at the mo. It's a path I'd love to take but I'll heed your warnings and be sure to proceed with caution. Any particular experience that makes someone stand out? Or more a case of having the right attitude and personality? My old man's a farmer and struggles to get good farm workers. Lots of lazy bar stewards with bits of paper but don't want to do the work, as he puts it! He'd rather take on a guy with the right attitude and teach him all he needs to know like in the old days. Thats how I'd like to learn too but I guess it's different these days...

 

God, I sound like a right old fart!!

 

Experience mate thats what counts, time on a gamefarm,helping keepers and beating if you have the right work ethic you will shine through and above the lads with an armful of qualifications it also helps that you are married as single lads have no ties so can disappear at a moments notice.

 

be prepared for loads of nockbacks but keep at it is just a case of applying for everything and hope that you get an interveiw

[danw 1,748]

Just a thought but what area are you roughly I might know for some seasonal work if it helps

[carlosmingos 0]

That's great thanks Danw, I remain not completely disheartened! :-) I'm based near Milton Keynes (for my sins!) but I'm happy to travel, within reason, to get as much variety of experience as I possibly can over weekends or the odd week off work. Lets say down as far as somerset and as far up as Manchester.... Any tip-offs would be very much appreciated mate, cheers very much. Very kind of you

[danw 1,748]

That's great thanks Danw, I remain not completely disheartened! :-) I'm based near Milton Keynes (for my sins!) but I'm happy to travel, within reason, to get as much variety of experience as I possibly can over weekends or the odd week off work. Lets say down as far as somerset and as far up as Manchester.... Any tip-offs would be very much appreciated mate, cheers very much. Very kind of you

 

Give us a couple of days I have some contacts around Bicester and a few near gloucester or if you fancy the drive pop down to us in dorset

[farmerkev09 105]

good luck buddy its hard to get in too and not well payed but its the way of life that rewarding you most

[carlosmingos 0]

Cheers farmerkev, i've always been jealous of the lifestyle that keepers have. Suits me down to the ground. Only recently I've told myself to stop being a knob and do something about it!!

[jazz_11 5]

hi mate, i like you want to get in to keepering, i have dropped my full time job and i am workin one or 2 days a week now, i find it financially hard as my parents cant support me but i just got to get on with it...

keepering like others have said is pretty hard to get in to, a lot of shoots looks for lads who have come from sparsholt college, a college known for its gamekeeping course..

I then changed a little and i am looking to do anything within agriculture or land based.. im now studying a 2 year land management course in a agricultural college, just completed my chainsaw course and passed it yesterday im hoping todo my cutting, knapsacking and ATV courses as well all of which cost money to do... the course involves things like deer manaement and things like that, covers other aspects of work such as estate skills where you look at dry stone walling hedge laying fencing and things like that again all agricultural based.... farming is something i would love to get in to but i decided to take this course instead in the hope of getting on an estate or something..

pay in this line of work isnt great but money aside i will love every minute of being outside and for me thats what its all about...

best of luck mate

[WonderWellies 1]

Apologies for repeating myself, but this kind of query comes up again and again...

 

Keepering is like loads of other professions: a few years back you didn't need a qualification (and in some cases, for some professions there wasn't a qualification) but where you have any profession with competition to get in, you'll find courses spring up related to it. Once there are qualifications, it ups the ante and increases the competition.

 

Joe Bloggs might have a qualification and some experience of working in a profession while John Doe might have left school and gone straight into working in the profession in an entry-level position. Joe Bloggs may not be any more experienced or knowledgeable than John Doe. But if you're an employer with one position to fill and you have 20 or 30 applications, you usually have some way of scoring them to whittle them down to 6 or 8 to interview, then some way of scoring how people fair in interview. Whether it's a formal process or it's an instinctive one in their head, every employer has some kind of system.

 

Like I said, there are loads of careers out there like this now - keepering's just one of many.

 

I'm sure you'll have looked at NGOs website - the menu of left has "About Gamekeeping" and "Advice Sheets" - they're both worth a look. Also click on "Charitable Trust" to get to their educational trust website; the "Becoming a Gamekeeper" page has a section called "At College" with a "click here" option for a list of courses. You could also contact the Gamekeepers Welfare Trust - they run a job register for keepers looking for work and employers with vacancies to fill. And keep talking to people on forums like this as they're a gold mine of contacts and opportunities.

 

Good luck!

Edited November 2, 2011 by WonderWellies

[carlosmingos 0]

@wonderwellies: thanks for the tips. I know exactly what you mean with regards to qualifications, I've seen it happen within other professions as well. It certainly changes things but, I find often, not necessarily for the best. I have indeed already stumbled across NGO & GWT and have noted their advice, but it's nice to hear confirmation that the advice they give is valid and relevant, thank you. You're dead right though, I'm already finding this site a goldmine of information.

 

@jazz_11: interesting to hear about your experiences. Also interesting what you say about employers seeking guys (or gals!) who've studied at Sparsholt. I was wondering if there might be a particular college that's favoured by employers. Could you elaborate more on this please? Has anyone else found this to be the case also?

[hellyer189 93]

hi mate i looked into it about a year or so ago going back to college and that, but i asked around about the chances of gettinga job after and it seemed slim so i didnt bother

[jazz_11 5]

@carlosmingos..

hi mate what i basically mean is that sparsholt is known for its gamekeeping courses... its far better than any other i no of, even the one that the college i am studying at used to run therefor if someone who studdied at sparsholt came up against someone who studied gamekeeping at my local agricltural college whih was only a 1 day a week NVQ course who is most likely to get the job ?

.... its not always the case and one thing college wont give you is much experience and in my view thats what its all about, getting experience...