Business Support for Young People

Explore our Farming Ambition Programme

If you are between 18-30 and are looking at turning your farming related ambitions into reality, then this support programme can help you.

It’s specifically designed to provide advice, support and potentially some grant funding to allow you to explore your business ideas.

So, if you live in Cumbria or The Yorkshire Dales and are aged 18-30 and are passionate about setting up or developing a farming or farming-related business but are limited by the resources or opportunities available – get in touch to find out more.

So far, over 100 young people have taken part in the programme, giving them  the opportunity to see if their business idea can be developed.

We’ve seen young farmers start new enterprises, develop existing ones and even rule out an idea they were itching to test.

…and you don’t have to be living on a farm to benefit. We’ve helped people who don’t have a farm to fall back on, to start out on their journey.

Farming is a business and if you want to build up your own farming collateral –  (stock or equipment), you will business skills and a plan. This Farming Ambition Programme can help you get:

• Some training in the basics of business planning
• One-to-one support from an experienced farm business adviser
• Where appropriate, access to a small training grant
• Help preparing external loan applications (we currently can’t offer loans)
• Ongoing support from a volunteer business mentor

Download our Business Support For Young People Leaflet 

From 2011 – 2019 the programme was funded by The Prince’s Trust and the Prince’s Countryside Fund. The low interest loans are not available on the 2020 programme.