Our Chief Executive Janet Swadling and I were recently invited to attend the Green Careers Festival at Cambridge University, organised in collaboration with Cambridge Zero.
At the festival, students were able to explore potential career pathways and job opportunities with the aim of inspiring them to pursue roles that have a direct, positive impact on the planet.
There were over 20 stalls brought by a diverse range of organisations such as BeZero Carbon, the Environment Agency, ERM (incorporating Element Energy), Forest Research, Octopus Energy, the Woodland Trust and TIAH! These stalls provided invaluable talks and resources to help individuals launch their green career.
We met 40 highly motivated and well-informed students from a range of disciplines including chemistry, engineering, geography, social science, and philosophy and ethics. They demonstrated a deep admiration for the agricultural and horticultural sectors and displayed an impressive level of knowledge on the challenges these industries face. Despite their confidence in their understanding of the issues and their positive perspective on the industries, they were still uncertain of the specific roles suited to graduates in these areas.
We recommended that the students pay attention to the industries in the media, particularly through TIAH’s social media posts, and look to our platform following the full launch for more detailed breakdowns of roles and capabilities. We also suggested that the students consider the skills they have and how they may be transferable to our sectors, noting that fresh and unrestricted thinking is invaluable! Several students left their contact information with me, and I will be sharing details of green jobs hubs, case studies, examples of breakthroughs made, and the names of some key players in the agri-tech sector.
We left the festival with a sense of optimism and enthusiasm. We were impressed with the students’ eagerness to learn more about the industries and their keenness to make an impact.
As a result of festival, we have seen a need for more resources and guidance to help young people interested in pursuing a career in the agricultural and horticultural sectors. We have begun to develop a range of resources to help students address the opportunities available within our sectors, which will be available soon.
If you are a careers advisor or seeker and would like find out more about TIAH’s careers activity, please contact me by emailing [email protected]
Ruth is TIAH’s Careers Manager. She is responsible for promoting the profile of careers in the industry and collating information regarding career progression and training opportunities. Her aim is to convince a wide variety of people to make the land-based industries their sector of choice for employment and to help them build meaningful training records for progression in their chosen direction through the industry.
