work experience for young people
Information for Non-EU Students
The Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS) allows for the admission of seasonal workers from Bulgaria and Romania using a work card system.
Workers are admitted for a maximum of six months to do seasonal agricultural work for farmers and growers.
This work is low skilled and includes:
- planting and gathering crops;
- on-farm processing and packing of crops (for example salad vegetables, soft fruit, and flowers); and
- handling livestock (for example, lambing and on-farm poultry processing).
You should be paid at least the national minimum wage for the work.
The scheme is run for the Home Office by Operators who recruit suitable people and place them on farms. The Operator may need to transfer you to other farms during your stay.
Concordia is just one of the operators of the SAWS scheme. For other operators click here.
To be eligible to be offered employment as a seasonal agricultural worker under this scheme you must:
- Be over 18 years of age at the time of starting work on the scheme
- Be a holder of a valid Bulgarian or Romanian pasport Remain outside the UK throughout the entire application process
Individuals may participate in the scheme on more than one occasion provided they undertake a minimum break of three months between periods of participation, and they abide by the rules concerning their immigration status.
Dependants are not permitted to accompany SAWS participants unless they qualify for entry in their own right.
UK work placements available
Concordia has placements on farms in the UK starting between now and mid-June. If this is of interest to you and you have working rights in the UK, then please e-mail students@concordia-
ysv.org.uk with your name, date of birth, contact details and the dates you are available.
We regret that if you are a Romanian or Bulgarian national, all our SAWS work cards for 2008 have been allocated and we will not be able to offer you a placement.
Visa Information
You will require a visa to work in the UK. Please allow enough time to apply to ensure you arrive at the start of the work placement. If you are travelling to the UK over land you will also need a valid Schengen visa. For more information on UK visa requirements please click here.