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 delegates of the many course 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 MBA’s 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 (see picture above).
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. 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.
3. The Learning Extension Day
The biggest event in the WCFA year is the Annual Learning Extension Day. This all-day event is free to WCFA members and provides an opportunity for alumni from all of the Company’s courses to come together to carry on learning, to exchange ideas and views and to meet up with old friends and make new ones.
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 form a WCF course receive membership of the WCFA free for the year in which they attended a course. Subscriptions become due on January 31st 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
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