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 Name: Dan Massey
Company: JE Buckle Engineers based at Cromer, near, Stevenage, Herts
Age: 21
Background: Daniel Massey has been working for John Deere dealer JE Buckle Engineers based at Cromer, near Stevenage, Herts, since he left school five years ago.
The son of a local farmer, 21 year old Daniel was offered an apprenticeship sponsored by John Deere which saw him attending Brooksby Agricultural College for three years on block release. It was an arrangement which meant that while he was learning his craft he was still earning regular wages.
The highlight of his apprenticeship, he says was when he won a City and Guilds Gold Medal for excellence - recognition of the effort he had put into his studies at Brooksby.
His medal was presented by the Duke of Edinburgh at a ceremony held at St James Palace, London.
Q. What was it that made you decide you wanted to be an agricultural engineer?
A. My father is a farmer and I have spent my life being involved with agricultural machinery. I was always tinkering around in the workshop putting things together or, more commonly, taking them to bits.
Q. How did you get your job with JE Buckle Engineers?
A. There was a vacancy and I applied. I had to convince the company that I really wanted to do it. They clearly did not want anyone who was not going to be interested in the work.
Q. What is your favourite job?
A. It's working on tractors. I enjoy all aspects of tractor repair work - engines in particular. You can't beat the feeling you get when see a tractor working again after you've fixed it.
Q. What is the job you dislike most?
A. Sometimes when it's late in the evening, pouring with rain and I'm stuck under a machine covered in mud I wonder why I do it but it soon passes. You take the good with the bad.
Q. What do you see as being the biggest challenge of your work?
A. I have to always remember I am dealing with customers and realise that when their machines are not working they could be losing money. I have to understand their needs - and that can be a challenge when they are getting impatient.
Q. So, what is it you particularly enjoy about your job?
A. It's the freedom and the variation. The ability to drive from farm to farm in my company van solving mechanical problems. I could spend the morning on a farm at Bedford fixing a tractor and then go 20 miles down the road to sort out a lawnmower for a customer.
Q. Do you need to spend time on courses?
A. I suppose on average I am asked to attend about four courses a year when John Deere launches new kit or introduces updates to existing machinery. They're interesting and also give me a chance to meet up with friends who were on the same course at Brooksby with me.
Q. You've been with Buckle Engineers now for five years. Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
A. My ambition at the moment is to progress to becoming Service Manager - taking charge of the whole workshop and the jobs we do outside on the farms. It is a job I would really like and I should think in five years I should be capable of doing it.
Q. Are you still convinced you made the right decision to become an agricultural engineer?
A. Oh yes. It's a good life with good prospects and I wouldn't change any of it
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Name: Nathan Riches
Are you looking to change career and work in the agricultural and groundcare engineering industry?