Laois and Offaly Education and Training Board (LOETB) is continuing its computer classes for farmers, with a new class beginning next Thursday, April 3, in Mountmellick FET Centre, Co. Laois.

The free programme offers farmers the opportunity to learn computer skills that are essential to navigating the agricultural sector.

Earlier this year, LOETB ran classes throughout Co. Offaly, which covered a range of different technological skills that farmers need on a day-to-day basis.

The regional literacy coordinator at the LOETB, Tamara Latham said: "We’ve had two classes in Offaly, with two big groups in both. It’s doing really well at the moment. I wasn’t expecting to get big numbers, given the time of year, but I have 10 in the class.

"In our classes, generally we do a lot of the apps, trouble with ICBF (Irish Cattle Breeding Federation), applying for grants, the geo-tagging and what’s the best way of doing that has also come up.

"There’s quite a different level of skillset within the classes. That was one of the challenges," Latham told Agriland.

Latham said that she was pleasantly surprised by the response to the computer classes.

She said: "When we get people in, they start to say, ‘oh, I didn’t realise you could do that', or 'I didn’t realise there was an easier way around that’.

Last year, LOETB set up digital support hubs in local marts. The hubs were designed to provide support to farmers in any way they could.

According to the Programme for International Assessment for Adult Competencies, over one in five adults in Ireland have unmet literacy needs, and one in four adults have unmet numeracy needs.

The free farmers' computer classes begin next Thursday, April 3, from 10:00a.m - 12:00p.m in Mountmellick.