Position
: Farm Technician
Reports to
: Farming and Rural Skills Education Manager
Salary
: £25,500 to £27,500 (depending on experience)
Hours
: Full Time (37.5 hours)
Location
: Dumfries House, East Ayrshire, KA18 2NJ
About The King's Foundation
The King's Foundation is a charity founded by King Charles III and was first formed in 1990. Inspired by the vision and values of His Majesty, the Foundation focuses on creating better communities where people, places and the planet can coexist in harmony.
The charity offers education courses for over 15,000 students annually, health and wellbeing programmes for nearly 2,000 people every year, and spearheads placemaking and regeneration projects in the UK and overseas to revitalise communities and historic buildings.
The King's Foundation is headquartered at its flagship regeneration project, Dumfries House in Ayrshire, Scotland, and acts as custodian of other historic Royal sites including the Castle of Mey in Caithness, Scotland, and Highgrove Gardens in Gloucestershire, which are open to visitors. The Foundation also carries out its work at educational and cultural hubs in London, based at The King's Foundation School for Traditional Arts in Shoreditch, Trinity Buoy Wharf on the River Thames and the Garrison Chapel in Chelsea.
The work of The King's Foundation is underpinned by our Founder His Majesty The King's philosophy of harmony: that by understanding the balance, the order and the relationships between ourselves and the natural world we can create a more sustainable future. We have a diverse and inclusive workplace, creating a welcoming, safe space for everyone. This means that every member of our team can bring their whole self to work. We encourage qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply to and join The King's Foundation and bring their valuable skills and experiences.
The Foundation is committed to the equal treatment of all current and prospective employees, including the provision of workplace adjustments. We do not tolerate discrimination based on protected characteristics (age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage and civil partnership) or other difference such as socio-economic background or social origin.
The Role:
The post holder will be responsible for the day-to-day care of livestock (mainly cattle and sheep with occasional pig and poultry handling) that will be used for education workshops. The post holder will also assist the education team with the delivery of educational experiences to ensure the activity can be carried out safely.
Our Farming and Rural Skills offering is delivered via The MacRobert Farming and Rural Skills Training Centre. The centre provides education for new entrants to the sector from secondary school age 14+ as well as adults via day workshops and short-term training programmes. The centre assist those already working in the industry to diversify and hone their skill set. External groups utilise the centre for a variety of land-based programmes to complement the inhouse delivery. The centre's vision is to ensure sustainable agriculture practices becoming industry standard and to support land-based skills training. In addition, the adjacent Valentin's Farm delivers programmes to learners at Primary School and Secondary School pupils up to the age of 14.
Key Tasks
* Ensuring the livestock are appropriately looked after before, during and after education activity and moving them from Home Farm to MacRoberts Byre as required.
* Liaising with the education delivery team to ensure animals are in place for relevant workshops.
* Preparing, and maintaining equipment, facilities to a high standard prior to, and following, education activity.
* Responsible for monitoring the safety of livestock and participants during the delivery of farming and rural skills workshops
* Ensuring best practice in animal welfare is adhered to.
* Ensuring the education byre remains hygienic and presentable at all times.
* Following and contributing to risk assessments, relating to animal handling and skills based workshops, as required.
* Demonstrating key tasks relevant to the role to learners under the direction of the education team.
* Monitoring and requesting stock as appropriate.
* Informing relevant Foundation staff when maintenance is required in a timely and safe manner.
* Following procedures for first aid and incident reporting.
* Maintaining familiarity with The King's Foundation handbook and relevant HR procedures.
* Undertaking any other duties as may reasonably be required of you in the post.
It is in the nature of the work of The King's Foundation that tasks and responsibilities are, in certain circumstances, unpredictable and varied. This is due to the variety of activity delivered from the centre which can include large scale events as well as short- and long-term workshop delivery. All staff are therefore expected to work in a flexible way when the occasion arises that tasks which are not specifically covered in their Job Description must be undertaken.
Person Specification
Essential Experience and knowledge:
* Expertise in animal handling.
* Working in the agriculture sector.
* Ability to operate quad bike/trailer.
* Experience working with cattle and associated equipment, e.g. cattle crush
* Experience working with sheep and associated equipment, e.g Prattley system.
Essential Qualities:
* Able to represent The King's Foundation professionally at all times.
* Strong communication and organisational skills.
* Able to work closely with the commercial farm operations to ensure smooth running of education delivery.
* Ability to work proactively and flexibly.
* The ability to work well within a team, maintaining positive relationships with the wider education staff.
Desirable experience, knowledge and qualities are:
* Good understanding of regenerative and sustainable farming approaches.
* Experience working with young people in education related activity.
* First aid certification.
Other:
* The post will be based at Dumfries House, Cumnock Ayrshire.
* This post is based on a full time 37.5 hour week linked to the target audience needs. * This post may also be considered for 0.8FTE working pattern.
* Weekend and evening work will be required in this post and while core delivery will be across the standard working week there will be occasions where an adjusted shift pattern will be expected.
* You must have the legal right to work in the UK.
* This post is considered to be a regulated activity therefore any offer will be subject to a satisfactory disclosure check with the Disclosure and Barring Service or PVG.
Applications:
Please submit a cover letter and CV (please note one A4 page maximum each for CV and letter) to Gordon Watson, email address: - hr.- and request an application form.
Closing Date
: Friday 3 October 2025