Where TwoCan® began.
Over 300 professionals have been through our food, farming and horticulture cohorts since 2023.
Food, farming and horticulture is built on expertise, resilience, and the ability to make good decisions under pressure — often alone. Whether you’re in primary production, the supply chain, or the broader food ecosystem, the challenges that really test you are rarely technical. They’re about people, leadership, uncertainty and knowing what to do next. TwoCan was built in this sector. Our founder Helen Wyman is a Nuffield Farming Scholar (2022), and her research into what makes mentoring actually work is the backbone of everything we do.
These aren’t weaknesses. They’re the normal experience of capable people working in a demanding industry.
Mentoring creates the space to think them through — with someone who has no agenda, no allegiances, and no stake in your next decision.
Having a mentor through Twocan has given me the ability to make time for myself from a development point of view. Having regular meetings with my mentor, has given me the opportunity to discuss how I would deal with certain scenarios as well having that connection time to allow for reflection on what has been going on in my work life.
Natalie Ingman
Commercial Manager – Dugdale Nutrition
Many of our earliest mentoring relationships began in food and farming. Read how people across the sector have used mentoring to gain confidence, clarity and fresh perspective.
Without time to pause and reflect, it is easy to:
Mentoring creates protected space to slow things down, gain perspective and move forward with confidence.
TwoCan’s cross-sector matching model means your mentor won’t come from food and farming. That’s deliberate. Place a white carnation into split-coloured water and it gradually absorbs the colours — transforming into something new. The same happens when people connect outside their usual world. Fresh perspectives, unexpected parallels, new ways of seeing familiar problems.
Our participants consistently tell us the most valuable thing about TwoCan was the match — and specifically that their mentor came from somewhere they’d never have thought to look.
We all have our personal and work bubbles, so we’ve both been loving exposure to a different perspective and part of the industry neither of us had really seen in detail before.
George Peart
Principal Sustainability Consultant – Promar International
Twocan mentors help people think more clearly — not by giving answers, but by helping people explore better questions.
Twocan mentoring provides non-technical CPD that helps people to:
Think clearly through complex or high-pressure decisions
Build confidence in leadership and professional judgement
Develop communication and people-management skills
Navigate growth, succession, change and increasing responsibility
Gain perspective from outside the agricultural bubble
Feel less isolated in roles that carry responsibility
This is not about being told what to do. It is about having an experienced, impartial person alongside you as you work things out for yourself.
Twocan offers a structured, professional mentoring programme, delivered either in person or online, designed to support meaningful and lasting development.
Participants take part in an in-person or online programme that builds the skills and understanding needed to get the most from mentoring, ensuring mentoring relationships are effective, focused and valuable.
Our bespoke mentoring matching software carefully matches mentors and mentees based on experience, preferences and development goals, removing guesswork and improving outcomes.
Participants are supported throughout the programme with clear structure, guidance and a point of contact, ensuring mentoring remains purposeful and sustainable.
Participants also have access to ongoing personal development courses, supporting continued growth beyond the core mentoring relationship.
Our next Food, Farming and Agriculture cohort begins October 2026.
The Fundamentals of Mentoring training day will take place on 7th October 2026 at Sandburn Hall, York.
Applications are now open! Simply fill out the form to register your interest and learn more – we’ll be in touch shortly.
Our founder, Helen Wyman shares insights on leading agricultural podcasts, discussing the benefits of mentorship and how it helps farmers grow their skills and businesses.
Recognised by leading farming publications, we’re sharing the story of how mentorship is helping farmers thrive and succeed.
Farmers are increasingly turning to mentoring to help navigate difficult business decisions and challenges. This article explores the value of an independent sounding board, with a real-life story of how mentoring helped one farmer move forward with a major diversification project.
We’re pleased to be featured again in Farmers Weekly—this time for our part in supporting fresh ideas and innovation in farming. It’s great to see new thinking taking the spotlight, and we’re proud to contribute to the conversations helping the industry move forward.
Twocan Mentor is delighted to be featured in the Women in Food and Farming Network, highlighting our latest cohort and the impact of cross-sector mentoring. The article celebrates how our programme builds confidence, connection, and fresh perspectives, helping to grow people and opportunities across the food, farming, and horticulture industry.
We’re thrilled to be featured by Cornish Mutual, showcasing how mentorship can empower farmers to grow their skills and navigate challenges with confidence. By connecting experience with fresh perspectives, we’re helping to build a supportive and collaborative farming community.
We’re proud to be featured in Farmers Weekly for our role in highlighting how agricultural mentoring can help farm businesses thrive. By sharing real-world insights and expert advice, we’re helping to shape stronger, more resilient farming communities.
Whether you are exploring mentoring for yourself, placing people into one of our sector programmes, or looking for a mentoring solution designed specifically for your organisation, we would love to talk.
I am a rural researcher at Savills, focusing on agricultural, environmental, rural property, and land use issues across the UK. I lead a team of research analysts and a specialist rural data team, analysing the impact of policy changes on rural businesses and the land market. Alongside this, I run our family arable farm in east Lincolnshire and am busy investigating ways that we can evolve our combinable cropping system to make the business more sustainable.
I joined the programme as I was keen to benefit from an outside perspective on my development while also offering my experience back as a mentor. I really like the matching process and that there is training to help make sure you get the most out of the programme.
I am a passionate agriculturalist with a fierce thirst for learning. Farming is in my blood; I see agriculture as an industry that is often overlooked despite its global importance. As an Agri-Business Consultant I specialise in advising on business strategies, improving farm efficiency, and addressing the unique challenges of the agricultural sector, combining my deep-rooted understanding of practical farming with modern business practices.
Land management is vital for food production, environmental conservation, and energy generation. My aim is to help facilitate, empower UK farmers, showcasing them as world leaders in our industry.
I decided to join the cultivate success program in the hopes to engage and learn from experienced professionals who can offer different perspectives and further my own professional development.
I hope to gain invaluable personal insights, constructive criticisms, encouragement, and enhanced industry knowledge as well as new friends and connections.
Doctoral Researcher/PhD Candidate
Natural Resources Institute (NRI), University of Greenwich, London, UK
I am a dedicated food systems researcher and final-year PhD candidate focused on the cascading effects of disruptive shocks on agri-food value chains (AFVCs). My research has equipped me with a strong background in systems thinking, qualitative research, and stakeholder engagement. I am passionate about building resilient food systems, with a focus on sustainable and equitable solutions for global food security.
I decided to join this program to connect with like-minded professionals and mentors who can help guide my career in food system resilience. The opportunity to engage with a diverse network is invaluable to my personal and professional growth.
Through this experience, I hope to gain insights into practical applications of resilience-building strategies, expand my network within the agriculture industry, and strengthen my skills to better contribute to the global challenge of food security.
Environmental Assistant
I was recently made redundant from 7 years in breeding Barley in the research and development sector, upon this crossroads I joined the Twocan Mentor programme to hopefully gain direction and open up vision to other career options within agriculture that are not sitting on a tractor all day long.
My mentor is expertly matched and first session in going swimmingly well. So far this programme has given me purpose and a road in which I feel I can progress.
I look forward to what the next few months holds!
Studying for her PhD at Harper Adams University
Originally from inner-city Birmingham, I was attracted to the broad range of subjects that agriculture encompasses so completed a degree in Agriculture at Harper Adams University. During this time, I developed an interest in poultry nutrition and am now pursuing a PhD in slow growing broiler nutrition and environmental impact assessments. In my spare time I enjoy French classical dressage, cooking, knitting and exploring fashion.
I decided to join the Twocan Mentor program to develop a good foundation for a career in agriculture once I finish my PhD. I am passionate about networking and building communities and believe these factors are essential for personal and professional growth.
I hope to have great conversations with people from the sector that will lead to lasting networks and communities. I hope that through the mentorship I will develop clearer goals for my future and gain confidence about heading out to work in the industry.
MSc at Bangor University
I am a dedicated agriculturalist with my first degree in Agricultural Economics and Farm Management from Nigeria. I am also a recipient of the Commonwealth Scholarship and OFC Scholarship. I am currently pursuing my MSc in Agroforestry and Food Security at Bangor University, Wales. I am driven by the desire to use my knowledge to address global challenges related to food security and sustainability.
I joined Twocan Mentor to expand my knowledge and experience while advancing my career in the agri-food and forestry sectors. Through Twocan Mentor, I aim to gain valuable experience, develop my career, and pursue my passion for farming.
I look forward to leveraging my education, experiences, and opportunities offered by Twocan Mentor, to make a meaningful contribution to UK agriculture and beyond.
Knowledge Exchange at AHDB
I was brought up on a mixed livestock farm in East Yorkshire. After studying Agriculture at Newcastle University, I moved down to Warwickshire for my first ‘proper job’ at AHDB in the beef & sheep genetics sector. I did that for 3 years before taking a secondment into the Knowledge Exchange team at AHDB, being the point of contact for beef & sheep producers between Lincolnshire and Herefordshire. A year secondment, turned into 2 and then I got invited to stay! I’ve now been in the role 5 years and enjoy the variety my role brings – no two days are the same.
I love my job and my team, but I was looking for a new challenge when I came across Helen and Twocan Mentor at an industry networking event. Being mentored sounded like a great idea and opportunity to push myself. Having been in the same organisation since I graduated and the same role for a while, you can sometimes become a little sheltered from how other organisations and job roles work. This seemed the perfect opportunity to get an alternative opinion on my career and development from people that have a very different experience to me and don’t really know me, so have no bias.
I would love to have some goals and something to aim for, I don’t know where I see myself in 5/10/15 years, so I’m hoping this scheme will help me bring some clarity to that and work out what I do and don’t want from my career. I’d also like some different opinions on how to deal with work challenges – especially when people have different ways of working. I’m a planner who likes a reasonable amount of detail, a fair amount of control and time to think things through, so working with people who don’t work in that way is inevitable, but can be frustrating
