Buzzing with opportunity: Beekeeping qualification at Baldragon Academy

12 August 2025

At Baldragon Academy in Dundee, the National Progression Award (NPA) in Beekeeping at SCQF Level 5 is providing pupils with practical experience, scientific knowledge, and transferable life skills.

The NPA in Beekeeping introduces students to apiculture techniques, including identifying beekeeping equipment, managing bee colonies, and understanding pollination. The course is made up of three units: Beekeeping: an Introduction, Practical Skills, and Theory. Together, they provide learners with a comprehensive insight into both the biology of bees and maintaining hives.

Currently more than 20 schools are approved to offer the qualification, with over 350 entries to date, and that number is growing year on year.

Fred Mollison, a Scottish Expert Beemaster who teaches the course at Baldragon Academy, explains, “The first unit is general theory—equipment, types of hives, pollen and nectar sources. The second is hands-on. They go into hives, manage swarms, raise queens, and harvest honey. The third is deeper into bee biology, pollen types, and flower cycles.”

Classroom learning is combined with hands-on experience at the school’s own apiary, giving pupils the chance to don a bee suit and get to work managing colonies, inspecting hives, and harvesting honey.

Developing skills

While beekeeping might seem like a niche skill, the qualification offers far-reaching benefits. Pupils develop technical abilities, responsibility, and transferable skills such as communication, teamwork, and organisation.  As Fred Mollison points out, it’s about more than honey:

“They’re learning responsibility, patience, how to observe and record. They work in pairs or small teams, so communication is key. There’s problem-solving when things go wrong, and it builds resilience. You can’t rush a hive inspection—you have to be calm and methodical.”

What’s more, the course naturally embeds literacy and numeracy skills. Pupils keep detailed hive logs, label observations, track weather patterns, and calculate quantities of honey harvested and bottled.

“There’s a lot of side skills to this,” continues Fred Mollison. “Some pupils say they’re not great at English or Maths, but during inspections one has to record observations so they’re doing English. They calculate honey yields and pricing, so they’re doing Maths, without realising it.”

These skill-building opportunities give learners confidence and practical literacy and numeracy in a real-life setting.

Working with bees has also proven to have mental health benefits. The calming nature of apiary work has helped pupils manage anxiety and stress.

“There’s evidence that being around bees promotes calmness,” Fred Mollison notes. “Handling bees and being in a bee apiary calms people down. If you’re anxious or angry, the bees will know it.”

Pupil perspectives

For pupils like 17-year-old Matthew McConochie, the course has personal significance:

“My grandad, who I visit four times a year, keeps bees at his home in Estonia. I’ve always been interested but I never thought I’d get the chance to do it at school. I plan to have my own bees when I leave school in my garden. I could sell the honey, but I will probably keep most of it for myself.”

“For anyone else thinking about taking this course, I’d say go for it! It’s interesting and you will learn more about bees and the responsibility and importance of looking after them.”

15-year-old Katherine Kerr shares a similar enthusiasm. “I decided to take this course because I love animals and want to be a zookeeper,” she says. “This is definitely my favourite subject, and the more qualifications I can get involving animals the better. There’s a good mix of practical and theory and its great experience for my future career and has encouraged me to go to college.”

Cross-curricular collaboration

Departments and classes throughout Baldragon Academy have embraced the bees. The art department runs competitions to design honey labels. Business Studies pupils work on marketing and sales strategies. Craft, Design and Technology pupils build hives and tools, while those doing Home Economics help process the honey. Even Biology students use the apiary for pollination studies and microscopy work.

“This is genuinely an interdisciplinary project,” says Headteacher Hugh McAnich. “Young people are out caring for something and seeing a season through. It gives them an enormous sense of achievement. Learning becomes much more meaningful when it’s tangible.

“We've also worked as part of an enterprise project where we've developed our honey as a marketable product. Working with the Food Standards Agency, we sold the honey in the Dundee Science Centre as a legitimate product. It’s something our young people have created and can sit on supermarket shelves.”

Skills beyond the bees

Biology teacher Megan McGunnigle, who helps deliver the course, sees great value in the blend of coursework and real-time feedback.

“Many pupils struggle with exam conditions,” she explains. “This course gives them continual assessment and immediate feedback, which really benefits their confidence and learning.”

The course also opens doors to future careers in animal care, rural land management, and horticulture, but also crosses over into the scientific fields.

Megan McGunnigle explains: “There is some crossover with Biology. We teach a lot about pollination in third year, so it’s beneficial for pupils to go outside and see it in action. They can see the bees coming out of the hive and onto the flowers, they’re seeing it in practice instead of just reading about it in a textbook”

An obvious career choice linked to the qualification is commercial beekeeping, and in fact local businesses, such as the UK’s largest bee farm located near Coupar Angus, offer seasonal jobs to qualified students.

Qualifications to suit everyone

At Baldragon Academy, what began as a wider achievement initiative has grown into offering a Beekeeping qualification, and indeed involving as many pupils and classes as possible. The commitment to vocational learning ensures pupils gain more than a certificate, they gain hands-on experiences and transferable life skills.

“Vocational qualifications work really well because pupils see the relevance,” says Headteacher, Hugh McAnich. “They can see it, they can feel it, they can touch it, and I think that becomes  a much more meaningful experience for them when they're in school.

“Learning should be accessible for every young person. Whether you're following a more traditional mainstream route, or if you're taking a more vocational route, we have to have a diverse offering in schools so that every young person can get an opportunity to excel in something.”

Mags Paterson, Head of Creative, Hospitality & Sport at SQA, commented: “The NPA in Beekeeping is a fantastic example of how vocational qualifications bring learning to life. It gives young people hands-on experience, scientific understanding, and practical skills that can lead to further study or employment. The collaboration across departments at Baldragon Academy highlights that there is something for every pupil to get involved in.”