This paper gives a historial account of the development of an innovative community-based program of farm management training. It describes how a market survey was conducted of farmer needs for farm management training and how this was used to develop course content and delivery methods for a Certificate level award. It considers some wider issues that have arisen from the program, such as the barriers to participation in rural education, the need for a diversity of programs, the resource implication of such programs and the scope for collaboration between providers of education.