Our today's interlocutor is Sergei from Zhytomyr. Last summer, from July to October, he happened to be in England on the Concordia program. When I ask him directly whether it was worth going there and how much he managed to earn, he squints slyly and reluctantly drops: "I brought a little..." But word by word, Sergei perks up, and gradually the conversation begins to take shape...
Sergei is a fourth-year student at Zhytomyr Agricultural University. Even at admission, all applicants were told that during their studies they would have the opportunity to do an internship abroad. Such programs for university students are held in Denmark, Germany, England, and Poland. The duration of the internship is from three months to six months. As a rule, they go "for strawberries," "for lettuce," "for asparagus," "for beans." But there are also livestock farms: to Denmark, for example, they go "for geese." Last year, about two hundred students from their university went on foreign agricultural internships. This year, due to the war in Iraq, fewer, about 90 people.
When Sergei moved to the third year, he took up the issue of organizing a foreign internship seriously. He decided to "get into" England. There, for students of his agricultural university, two programs are available - HOPS and Concordia. According to him, HOPS is work on small, rather old farms, where up to 300 people can work simultaneously. The pay is lower, and there is little new equipment. And Concordia is quite interesting work on large farms with good living conditions, decent pay, and modern equipment.
The entire registration process - from submitting an application to leaving for the internship - takes at least six months, so there is no need to delay. Their university has a special department that handles sending students to such internships. You need to submit an application and fill out two forms. The main requirements for participants include a decent knowledge of English (checked in a special interview), a driver's license for driving a tractor, and an international student ID card ISIC, as well as no academic debts. After passing all interviews, you have to wait. In a couple of months, you will be informed where, when, and for what job you are going.
At the institute, Sergei paid 230 UAH for organizing the internship. Then - payment for the visa, tickets, the fee to Concordia, etc. In total, the trip costs amounted to about $500. True, they say it has become more expensive now.
What exactly is the Concordia program? It is an agricultural internship on farms in England: planting, weeding, harvesting, sorting, packaging agricultural products (berries, vegetables, fruits), installing greenhouses, etc. The duration of the program is up to six months (May-November). Participants can be full-time students (not final year), aged 20-25. Preference is given to students of agricultural specialties, biological, forestry, and similar fields.
The work is legal: program participants are issued special permits. You can only work on the farm where you arrived as a program participant; additional work elsewhere is considered illegal. If the work on your farm has ended, you can ask for a transfer to another farm: this happens. The program provides insurance against illness or accident at the workplace. In case of illness, you must contact the farmer-employer to take you to a doctor. The insurance does not cover dental services or the purchase of medicines. Food and accommodation are paid for by the students. As a rule, all program participants take $100-150 with them for the first time - until the first salary.
"In general, payment can be hourly or piece-rate," says Sergei. "Our guys had it all different - it depends on what the farmer wants. Hourly pay is calculated based on the number of working hours. The minimum is 4 pounds per hour, but it can be 5-6 pounds. A typical workweek is 40 hours. If you work more than the norm, then for each next hour of overtime you get one and a half times the rate. Piece-rate pay depends on the rates for a certain type of work. Here, however much you produce, that's how much you get. It's more profitable, our guys handle it well. We worked on bean harvesting. The norm is one box, they paid about 3 pounds for it. So our guys collected up to 30 boxes a day. Go figure. And by the most average estimates, you can earn 150-250 pounds a week. Everything is official, the salary is transferred to your bank account, and taxes are paid from it. You withdraw as much as you need to pay for housing and buy food."
As a rule, participants in such programs live in so-called "caravans" - trailer dormitories. There are three to eight people in a room. Accordingly, the payment is different: 19-25 pounds per week per person. Everyone has a bed and a bedside table. In the small kitchen there is a stove, microwave, and refrigerator. There is a shower and a washing machine. The guys cook themselves; they go to the nearest supermarket for shopping about twice a week - they live on farms, far from cities and towns, so more often is not possible.
Since the work is mainly in the field, the working day starts at seven in the morning and ends at 18-19 in the evening. The work schedule depends on the farmer, but most often students work six days a week. During the "hot" harvest time, work can be overtime and without days off. But downtime, even forced, due to bad weather, is not paid.
«The work itself — picking beans — was not hard. It was hard to get used to a different way of life — first, to the fact that the work had to be done very well, — Sergei shares. — The supervisor at the very beginning of the internship explained in detail what and how to do. A special manager constantly watched us, checked that we didn't pick green beans, that we didn't throw trash into the boxes, that we worked carefully. Second, we're not yet used to the money... At first we all recalculated into hryvnias. For example, a pack of cigarettes is four pounds, that's 32 hryvnias in our money! Wow! And then you remember that you're paid six pounds an hour and you calm down. After a week of work I bought myself a car — a Ford Sierra 1990 for $70. The car was fire! We drove a whole week without oil, then we poured tractor oil in and raced with the guys around the neighboring farms. Once we got caught, we had to pay a fine — 30 pounds. Then, though, we were forbidden to drive: road tolls, tax and all that hadn't been paid for the car. Then we started traveling by train. There were ten of us working on the farm. We lived near Stratford. We visited London and Birmingham. We went by ourselves, just picked a route and went. By the way, ISIC helps save a lot. At first, in July, we didn't get days off. Later we could take a day off, but we had to notify the manager the day before. And in October there was no work, so they gave us two days off. When we got ready to go home, we went to a special "Russian market": they sell cheap second-hand electronics there. A car stereo for a pound, a VCR for 5-7 pounds. Can you imagine how we felt...»
What else should future program participants pay attention to? Sergei advises not to forget that those who go to London by bus must get a Schengen visa and a transit visa through Poland. It's worth taking boots and work clothes, a blanket, a pillow, bed linen, some dishes with you — otherwise you'll have to buy all that in England. And in general — you definitely need to go, you'll have plenty of impressions, and you'll earn money! Sergei regrets that you can't go on this program a second time. You can, of course, arrange with the farm to send you an invitation to work next year. But then they'll kick you out of university...