A word from our Board: Karen Quinton

Karen was delighted to become a TIAH Board member in spring 2021, having stepped down as the Chair of Trustees of a multi-academy trust she helped to found. Moving to agriculture and horticulture allows her to share her expertise while learning about a new sector.

One thing that's become clear to me since becoming a TIAH Board member is the diversity of the industry and the extent to which the current approach to skills development and learning is fragmented. Although excellent training courses, coaching, webinars, and e-learning are available to those working across the industry, there's no single central location to access these.

TIAH has recognised the need to transform the present approach towards personal development, competence, and learning. We’re excited to have commissioned a ground-breaking platform where anyone in the sector can access learning, develop their skills, and find out more about careers, webinars, coaching, and access to labour market information and HR support. Our online portal will launch later this year, and we hope it will swiftly become the automatic gateway to learning across the industry.

Pinpoint appropriate training

We acknowledge the range of excellent courses currently provided by educational institutions across the sector and hope that instead of spending hours seeking out relevant training courses, employers and employees will be able to visit the TIAH platform and easily pinpoint the most appropriate training. Over time, our system will come to know each learner. It will not only build up a portable record of training and competence but will be able to recommend new avenues of learning relevant to each individual.

It’s important to reiterate that what we’re doing will enhance and add to, rather than replace what's already available in the industry.
Such a complex digital platform requires careful planning and development, and we’ve been very appreciative, as a Board, of the level of skill and professionalism brought to this by TIAH’s operational team.

We’re deeply aware of the significant proportion of rural areas still having challenging broadband connections. We’re engaging with projects to improve this situation and have factored it into our thinking when designing our systems. We’re taking a mobile-friendly approach and will ensure the platform is as intuitive, accessible, and user-friendly as possible. 

While there's a huge amount of work to do before launch, I’m sure that I speak on behalf of the rest of the Board when I say how excited we are to see this vision come to life. I believe that at a time of great change, it will help drive professionalism across the industry and help us excite new people to make careers in agriculture and horticulture.

You can find out more about Karen Quinton's experience and that of the rest of our non-executive directors.