50 free ATV training places offered in farm safety drive
Fifty farmers, agricultural workers and land-based students are being offered free ATV training and helmets in a new push to reduce serious farm accidents.
The Farm Safety Foundation, working with Lantra and Logic, has launched its 2026 ATV Bursary Scheme, providing 50 fully funded places on Lantra-accredited training courses.
Every successful applicant will also receive a Logic ATV helmet, with the initiative aiming to make both formal training and suitable head protection a normal part of farm practice.
ATVs are widely used across agriculture to save time, reach difficult terrain and support day-to-day work, but the organisations behind the scheme warn that familiarity with the machines can lead to complacency.
Stephanie Berkeley, Manager of the Farm Safety Foundation, said: “ATVs are part of everyday farming life, but familiarity should never make us complacent.”
She added: “These vehicles are powerful, practical, and often used in challenging conditions. Without the right training and protective equipment, things can go wrong very quickly.”
The bursary builds on the first year of the programme and forms part of a wider effort to reduce serious and fatal incidents involving ATVs.
Successful applicants will be matched with an approved Lantra training provider at a suitable location.
The course will cover pre-ride inspections, understanding the vehicle, safe handling, basic manoeuvres and operating ATVs across varied and challenging terrain.
The Farm Safety Foundation, which runs Farm Safety Week, said the scheme is also intended to challenge attitudes towards risk-taking and encourage safer behaviour across the industry.
Berkeley said the bursary was designed to remove barriers to accredited training and help farmers and workers refresh their skills and build confidence.
She said: “More people are recognising that training and helmet use are not signs of inexperience, they are signs of professionalism.”
Andrew Palmer, Industry Partner for Land, Food, and Farming at Lantra, said accredited training had an important role to play in helping operators use ATVs more safely.
He said: “ATVs play an important role in agriculture, but they also carry very real risks when used without the right knowledge, preparation and judgement.”
Palmer added that safe ATV use should be treated as a core part of modern farm practice.
Everyone who completes the course will receive a Logic helmet, reinforcing the message that suitable head protection should be routine whenever ATVs are used.
Applications are open to people currently working in agriculture or studying at a land-based college or university anywhere in the UK.
The application window is expected to close on Friday 25 September 2026, with successful applicants notified after the deadline.
The Farm Safety Foundation said that while farming would always involve risk, better training, protective equipment and safer decision-making could help prevent life-changing and fatal injuries.