Alumni Association

The WCFA – the alumni association for all WCF course delegates

Our purpose – A single network to facilitate the continued development, training and progress of all WCF alumni

The WCFA was set up in 2017 with a simple objective – to help the continued progress of the many course delegates from all the courses that the Worshipful Company of Farmers runs and supports. WCF delegates from all years of the Challenge of Rural Leadership, the Advanced Course in Agricultural Business Management, The Cranfield Business Growth Programme, both Cranfield MBAs and the new WCF course Profiting from Precision Technology in Agriculture are eligible to join the WCFA.

The WCF Alumni is your chance not only to benefit from the alumni network and extra training, but also to personally put something back into the industry and the work that the Worshipful Company of Farmers does through its courses, by providing financial support for less less well-off candidates and by providing vital mentoring time to other alumni of our courses, based on your own experience in the industry.

If you would like to talk to someone about the WCF Alumni association, or perhaps even volunteer to help administer it by joining the committee, then contact either our secretary Duncan Couper duncan@farmerslivery.org.uk , or Christopher Day the Chairman of the WCF Alumni Management committee on daymanton@googlemail.com

You can also access the association’s website through the alumni portal on the WCF website – you will find it in the top right hand corner next to the WCF Member Area.

You might be asking why you should consider joining the WCF Alumni association. You will find all the key benefits below.

The benefits of membership

1. An exclusive, private database of members and mentors

This will include all members of the association, with each member able to manage their own entry in the database online. Plus those members of the Worshipful Company of Farmers prepared to offer mentoring to members of the alumni association. The database will allow WCF Alumni members to search for other members or groups of members by course, by year, by industry sector and by geography (or any combination of these criteria). Password controlled access to the database will be via the WCF website and only available to paid-up members.

2. Mentoring

The database will also include a facility for individual members to flag their willingness to act as mentors to other members and for members to indicate that they are seeking mentoring – a sort of mentoring dating app!

3. Annual WCF Alumni – Learning Extension Day

This event will be free to WCF Alumni association members. It will take the form of a one-day, practical workshop, intended to allow the alumni to meet and mix, to share experiences, post their courses and to continue to develop their personal skill-set, through working sessions, hosted by experts and course tutors from the WCF courses. The day will also include an opportunity to participate in Speed Mentoring. These are short, 10 minute, one-to-one conversations with a variety of industry and educational experts, where members can get advice on topics of particular interest to themselves.

4. Free membership for twelve months

Annual membership, to cover the cost of administering the association, is £95, this includes a charitable donation of £25 to go towards a fund to support potential delegates less able to afford course fees and costs. Each year alumni graduating from a WCF course receive membership of the WCFA free for the year in which they attended a course. Subscriptions become due on January 31^st each year.

5. Reduced price tickets for WCF Events – including the Annual Lecture and Dinner

6. Invitations to participate in further WCF sponsored, training and development

7. A WCF Alumni badge

An exclusive, members only badge, that may be worn at all WCF Alumni and WCF events