Are people taking on less help around their yards due to the recession?

Spit That Out

Spit That Out

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I've been looking for weekend work as a groom for months now and jobs are either miles away or employers seem to be wanting someone who has unrealistic qualifications or experience for the jobs they are advertising for.

I had a weekend job at a local Show Jumping yard where i would muck out 20 horses on a Sat & Sun but the owner moved down south to a larger yard so I've been looking for something else for months.

There doesn't seem to be as many jobs available at the moment. Does this mean that YO's are doing more of the work themselves so they no longer need to pay for grooms? The 2 jobs that have been advertised recently have wanted people with qualifications (NVQ 3/4) and at least 5 years experience on professional yards. One of them even wanted the person to pay for their own police check...both these jobs were for basic grooms on min wage!!!

I remember when people just used to advertise for people who could turn out to a high standard and possibly plait...now you have to be a member of MENSA to get an interview!!

Are YO's no longer recruiting because they can get a eager teenager to do the work for free or is the recession stopping YO's taking on experienced (over 23 years), reliable but not qualified people like myself to save paying out a wage?

Is it the area i live in? I always thought Cheshire was quite a horsey county and I'm surprised there isn't more vacancies out there. Even yards that just need a hand over the weekend to give their full time grooms the weekend off?!!?

Rant over :(
 
People aren't just cutting their employees, they're letting their Yards take the hit as little funds exist for maintenance/upkeep. I know lots of people who've moved yards due to lack of maintenance/repairs/electricity not on/no hot water, upkeep on arenas poor etc. I guess the only way, is for the YO's to charge us more, which personally I don't mind doing. However, many don't want to pay more when the facilities are actually worsening and so leave
 
Rowenna said:
yes. Last year we employed 2 people, this year we haven't taken on anyone. We are doing it all ourselves to save paying out a wage.
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I appreciate that to save money YO's are doing the work themselves but i don't understand the sudden need to have a NVQ level 4 (yard manager qualification) with years of experience on pro yards to work as a weekend groom?

I had better get myself off to college as employers need pieces of paper rather than have someone with real life experience...:rolleyes:

Just my mid week rant!!! :D
 
I'm finding the opposite at the moment!! However, I only do work for private individuals - ie people who work full-time and either have their horses at home and need help with turningout/muckingout/poopicking, or people on diy yards with the same problem.
 
Sedgemoor Chaos said:
I appreciate that to save money YO's are doing the work themselves but i don't understand the sudden need to have a NVQ level 4 (yard manager qualification) with years of experience on pro yards to work as a weekend groom?

I had better get myself off to college as employers need pieces of paper rather than have someone with real life experience...:rolleyes:

Just my mid week rant!!! :D
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Nooo! I'd much rather have someone with experience than new horsey degrees and no experience!

Something will come up. Asking the farrier was a good comment...
 
I am self employed and am currently have two jobs. Both of these people (and many of the horsey people I know around here) were more interested to hear about my experience rather than my qualifications.

I do however think that larger yards are taking on less staff/finding cheaper alternatives to save money. The only problem is, the standard of the yard often suffers because of this as there is still the same amount of work which needs doing but corners are being cut to save money. It isn't good for liveries who are paying their money and the yard is not being run at the standard which it used to be run at.
 
I also find that people are more inclined to value reliability and experience over qualifications. Unfortunately my experience of equine college students is that they think that after a two year course they know more than someone who has owned and looked after horses for 30 years!!
 
I think the reason employers are asking for higher qualification or any qualification at all is because every tom, jack and harry who are only 12 years old are applying for the yard jobs. So now they are asking spesficically for people with quailfication so they dont get so many children applying. Its worth calling up about jobs even if you dont have the quailfication they are asking for, you most likely have relervernt experence and thats just as good.
 
Thanks for the suggestions peeps. I'll ask my farrier next time i see him, pop an ad in my local saddlery and your right, even though i don't have the piece of paper to say i can do the job i should apply.

I'm glad to hear that employers would rather have the experienced person than someone with all the qualifications.

Don't get me wrong, qualifications are very important for specific roles and i don't want to take anything away from people who have studied hard to get where they are today, however for a weekend groom they seem to be unrealistic.

Thanks for the advice :)
 
We have a self employed groom at our yard who mainly gets work from November to April as that's when the horses have to be in at night so people need more jobs done. I would say I've noticed when things got tight for owners financially and she had to put her costs up a bit last year that people stopped using her as much and relied on other liveries to help them out or did it themselves. Luckily for us she has 2 horses on the yard too so has to come to the yard herself twice a day so hasn't gone off elsewhere to look for work so I guess maybe what you're seeing in your area is people sitting tight in their groom jobs and not wanting to move on as very little out there in terms of other positions. I don't know how people make enough money to survive working in those posts.
 
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