Background
A farmer's one from Zimbabwe, Alan has a fascinating story of how he came to be in the UK and the opportunities he's created for himself. His father had always used John Deere tractors on the family farm and always had a fascination with machines, how they worked and wanting to repair them when they broke down. He left Zimbabwe six years ago having spent some time working for a local John Deere dealer he ventured to the UK having heard about the John Deere AgTech apprentice training scheme.

After spending literally hundreds of hours searching for jobs and placements in the UK he finally found success with Bourne Tractors in May 2001. Family connections in Peterborough helped with accommodation upon arrive after the flight to Gatwick after leaving parents in Zimbabwe with a bag of clothes to find his future career.

How did you start with Bourne tractors?
I wrote literally 100 letters to dealers across the country and followed them up with phone calls asking for an apprenticeship - it was certainly hard work finding that initial opening. However, it was well worth the effort once I'd met David, the managing director who made me feel very welcome.

Why did you want to come to the UK to train?
I'd heard a lot about the John Deere AgTech scheme from the dealer I worked for at home and thought I'd like to train overseas as well, so I'd fulfil a couple of ambitions at once. I had completed the equivalent of A levels before I came over, so I was a couple of years older than other students on my course, that didn't matter at all - I just wanted to start my training.

What impressed you like about the AgTech course?
I enjoyed the block resale aspect of the course. I could really get focused on learning without any outside distractions of a day release course. Brooksby have great experience at training students and that was really helpful in helping me learn the skills required to work in the dealership.

What did you gain from the course?
Obviously the knowledge to do my job well. However it gave the determination to work hard. With the experience of living and working in a new country my determination to succeed and working with other students was the other aspect of the course I really appreciated.

How do you relate to customers when working on farm?
I really enjoy going out and meeting farmers and solving the problems on their equipment. Now I've got to know most of them I've been made to feel really welcome. When I started I was novelty factor to start with as I was from Zimbabwe so I had to work hard to earn my reputation, now it's fine as I'm just one of the ‘locals'!

What does your day involve now?
About 50% of my time involves being out in my service van and the remainder either travelling or in the workshop. I'm in the van all the time in the summer during harvest, that's pretty stressful as the hours are long and tempers can be fraught if rain is coming and a farmer's machine is broken down, but that's part and parcel of the job.

What do you enjoy most about your job?
The challenge, variety and the social side isn't too bad either! Each job I do there a challenge to it as I may not come across the same fault twice or they are very well spread apart so I really have to remember how I solved the problem first time round. The variety of what I do is important to me as well, if I do the same job time after time I get bored easily, it's not something that I experience very often as the range of jobs is vast!

Who has been the biggest inspiration to you?
A couple of people. My father in Zimbabwe; he was always wanting to help and for me to develop myself in an area of work I wanted too; secondly Alan in the workshop. He has a phrase which he said to when I started - there's never such thing as a stupid question! He encouraged me to ask questions rather than stew and get nowhere or get it wrong. That helped my confidence hugely when I first started - hopefully I don't ask as many questions now!

If you had to sell the industry to others - what would you say?
If you like working in a relaxed environment, even under pressure, and you enjoy variety and challenges of both people and jobs then this is the industry for you.