Careers & Employment Information

Working On A Farm In Kent


Being a student, a person needs to look for summer jobs, to keep up with the expenses for school and fun activities. This task is not always easy, especially when you are studying at an American branch university and you have to pay tuition as well. So getting a summer job obviously rules out getting a job in your home Eastern European country as that would pay for only a couple of beers the most.

So here we go, approching the winter and thinking about the summer. There are few agencies in England, most of them under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme /SAWS/ where we want get in, as this is happening just before we enter the EU. We send off the applications to Concordia and wait. The waiting continues and so we call the office. The lady is a little bit hesitant about what we are studying and where, but we just keep talking that we need the summer farm job just like nothing in life at the moment. In two weeks we get the workcards, happily jumping all around and celebrating the victory, so far.

From papers it seems just fine, a small farm in Kent, all in all we are suppose to be twelve people there, and so we should get on. Happing previous experience and knowing that the less people there is, the better you have a relationship with the farmer, we are quite content with what we got and start preparing for the trip.

We arrive in London, get on the train to Kent and unload all the backs in a small village. Start calling the farmer and he picks us up just as promised in the papers. He seems a nice guy, looks a bit worried. Do not know if it is after the look at us or something wrong with his plants. But we get sorted out and arrive at the farm. It is quite a surprise, the farm is big, farmer house on the right, packhouse and refrigarator on the left. There are three caravans for us, the farm workers to be, and as we are the first ones to arrive, we get to choose. What a luck. They are all fine at the end.

We keep asking for work right at the beginning, not to make an impression, as you really need to work picking strawberries, but we need to make some money. And the farm seems just right for doing so, the farmer is a nice 50 something guy with his wife and two kids. Later on as we progress with the worker, he gives us further work in the afternoon and pays handsomely. It is just a couple of hours, but after the week it makes a nice addition to our pay. We are happy.

The work itself is not easy. Picking strawberries requires an early get up, waiting for a little bit of sun so that the dew gets of, and you just keep moving in your lane, with your holder and boxes for the whole day. Moving in and out of the field to the truck where the supervisors are standing and taking in the full boxes, punching your card of the first class and second class boxes, checking the produce and how you have separeted them.

At the beginning it was a mess with the supervisors. Too older English ladies and they were just giving us a hard time. But it kind of sort out with the time spent at the fields and at the end, we were friends. They took us to some shopping center and around the town for fish and chips. It was a nice summer, with lots of hard work, but it paid ok in terms of money and personal relations. We still have friends from the time we picked strawberries, couple of farmers friends have already visited Slovakia, and in return, we have showed them around over here. If you are looking for a farm job now, there are several resources to use, among those The Farmhands Service is one of those. For further information please visit the website.

Written by Marian Bridik, Aston Ltd. / Farmhands Service
http://www.farmhands.co.uk


MORE RESOURCES:
Google

Aljazeera.net

Amid ugly job picture, tech related employment holds up
ZDNet - Jul 3, 2008
The US economy lost 62000 jobs in June for the sixth straight month of employment losses with an unemployment rate of 5.5 percent, but underneath the ...
Little doubt that US is in recession; rest of the world can't ... The Age
Fragile economy takes toll on jobs Los Angeles Times
Jobs continue to fade Chicago Tribune
ABC News - Amerisurv (press release)
all 408 news articles


Reuters

Why tech jobs are beating the employment odds
ZDNet - Jul 3, 2008
... impressively choreographed fireworks displays, we?re capping off one of the most depressing weeks for employment reports in the better half of a decade. ...
Treasurys rise ahead of employment report The Associated Press
US employment slump 'may continue into 2009' Vedior
Treasurys advance after ADP jobs report MarketWatch
International Business Times - Forbes
all 161 news articles


Earthtimes (press release)

Trouble for Small-Business Employment
U.S. News & World Report, DC - Jul 2, 2008
Last month, I declared small-business employment "not too shabby" after looking at May's survey from Automatic Data Processing and the consulting firm ...
ADP National Employment Report Shows US Employment Decreased by ... CNNMoney.com
ECONOMY: Little to Cheer on US Independence Day Inter Press Service (subscription)
DJ: ADP Sees June US Private Sector Jobs Down 79000 Onet.pl
New York Times - TheStreet.com
all 81 news articles


US stocks advance as employment report comes as expected
MarketWatch - Jul 3, 2008
By MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- US stocks end mostly higher, offering a benign reaction to the government's report on employment, which fell only ...
US stocks advance as employment report comes as expected MarketWatch
Dollar loses ground after weak jobs report MarketWatch
US stocks mostly higher in the wake of jobs data MarketWatch
all 26 news articles


CEP News

Ivey index rises more than expected
Calgary Herald,  Canada - 4 hours ago
But The Ivey employment index dropped to 58.2 from 59.3 in the previous month, while the prices index climbed to 84.1 from 82.9. ...
Canada June Business Spending Accelerated, Ivey Shows (Update1) Bloomberg
Purchasing managers remain optimistic CBC.ca
Canada's Ivey PMI Leaps Above Consensus Forecast for June CEP News
International Business Times - CEP News
all 63 news articles


Survey shows biggest decline in employment for six years
Financial Times, UK - 20 hours ago
By Daniel Pimlott in New York The US suffered its largest drop in employment in nearly six years in June in a sign of the deteriorating economic environment ...


Outlook Darker as Jobs Are Lost
New York Times, United States - 9 hours ago
Responding quickly to the government employment report, issued Thursday, the presidential candidates called for action, beyond the recent stimulus package, ...
Jobs Continue to Be Lost ToTheCenter.com
Employers Cut Workers for a Sixth Month New York Times
all 11 news articles


Getting The Deal Through - Labour & Employment 2008
Mondaq News Alerts (subscription), UK - 6 hours ago
As Australia is a federation, employment law is governed by laws made by the parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia (federal law) as well as by ...
Who Owns IP Produced "On The Job Mondaq News Alerts (subscription)
all 2 news articles


June is sixth straight month of job losses
Kansas City Star, MO - 17 hours ago
Since December, payroll employment has fallen by 438000 jobs. Another indicator, also reported Thursday, suggested further upward revisions in jobless ...
Job market: No bottom until '09 CNN
Why Lousy Jobs Numbers Might Be OK U.S. News & World Report
all 5 news articles


SJ: COUNTY SUPES OPPOSE FEDERAL ELECTRONIC EMPLOYMENT VERIFICATION ...
CBS 5, CA - 1 hour ago
The SAVE Act would require all employers to verify the employment eligibility of all workers by using Basic Pilot/E-Verify, a system that relies heavily on ...

Employment - Google News

home | site map
© 2006