Any ideas on a career in the above? Good points or bad? steer clear or go for it??

Cheers.

it's a good job... The work is based on common sense and understanding how to manimulate things as well as knowledge of machines. Experience of using the machines is very good to help understand them further. Payment, depending where you are/what your doing, anywhere between £10 and £60 an hour (averagly £30). Always work avalible. A college corse is very easy, and good fun.  Definatly an area of agriculture which, with the correct skills and knowledge, recieves a good profit and a genrally good job.

tractordriver99:

between £10 and £60 an hour (averagly £30).

really??? You must make a killing at harvest then, especially if your on call 24/7!

*** i should move back to the UK and redo my deploma course that i left if the pays that good the best most guy over here can hope for is 25 bucks an hour mor thow if you work for a large farm as a mecanic/tractor driver.

http://www.learndirect-advice.co.uk/helpwithyourcareer/jobprofiles/profiles/profile895/

There is a fair bit of information there.

 i did six weeks work experiance at our claas dealer, it was ok (maybe a little boring in the 3 week winter block) but deffinatly a good job if you are aiming to progress through a company. however what put me off was you had to do a 4 year apprenticeship. imagin getting to the end of the secound year and relising you hated it.

i love machinery but i love being out there with it not in the work shop fixing it, even though in my work experiance i learnt one hell of a lot about claas!

 A land based  technology corse should do a split between repairing/maintaining machinery as well as operating it, as well as other workshop skills. And thats not only ag machinery, but construction, plant, horticultural, etc.

Depends..... It is a very broad industry when you look into it.    You have to choose    If you like the farm way of life...and are happy spending the rest of your life in overalls, go work at the retail end for a dealer, but  set your sights on one of the higher level dealers.  That way you will be with the latest Product which augers well when you want to move on.        Alternatively, aim for one of the Global tractor or full line equipment manufacturers, but you will need to have a good qualification and CV to get in at entry level.   Thereafter, if your heart is in it, progress can be assured, and you can decide if you prefer the Engineering, Product, Parts, Technical Support, or Sales & Marketing channel.     Contact them, develop your contacts.  The more you investigate and enquire, the more real experience you gather,  the better your chances.       A good life can be had here, but you won't get rich.     Its not that kind of industry.

Its a good job with a potentaly broad spectrum of work, I worked for a main NH dealer as an apprentice the money at that level is crap earnt more driving them! but i gained alot of very valuble knowledge that can be applied to any thing mechanical. You will spend hours doing the dog work to start with but things improve with time. its great if you dont mind long hours in the summer and going home every night plasterd in grease, oil & god knows what else! and if you dont mind being up inside a combine at lunch time sweating your nuts off getting covered in a foot of dust and trying to contort your body in to the most peculier positions!

But as someone already said i`d rather be out in the field operating than in the workshop fixing.