TIAH supports new thinking in farming and growing

TIAH’s Chief Executive Jon Levett said: “We welcome the fact that the working group has clearly recognised the need for action to ensure those already working in agriculture and horticulture have the appropriate knowledge and skills to be able to maximise the potential of new technology and innovation, while also highlighting the need to attract new talent into the industry to further harness new opportunities.” 

Janet Swadling sits on the Application of Science Working Group, and is also a member of the TIAH and AHDB Boards. Janet said: “The working group has highlighted the real role of skills in knowledge exchange and the uptake of innovation. I believe that, by working together, the key parties involved have an important opportunity to approach things in a different, more joined up and more practical way.” 

We have highlighted our key role in three of the working group’s recommendations: 

Recommendation 3, which calls for food systems education in schools and agricultural information for careers advisors 

Based on the findings of research commissioned, we recently initiated a cross-industry action plan to address barriers to people choosing farming and growing careers. The agreed framework for action comprises five pillars: 

• Coordination: Developing an industry wide coordinated approach to careers
• Collaboration: Promoting ways in to farming and growing careers 
• Change: Improving the perception of the agriculture/ horticulture sectors, and promote the opportunities within them to a wider audience 
• Capacity: Updating learning resources – link to curriculum and increase in-person contact  
• Communication:  Simplifying the careers messaging to careers seekers and influencers to improve overall impact 

Recommendation 5, which the importance of digital communication in knowledge exchange and skills uptake 

As the working group has recognised, key to our contribution will be the new Online Service, which will launch next year. This has been designed to streamline farmers’ access to Continuous Professional Development (CPD) opportunities. It will give individuals a personalised experience by learning about them through the content they visit on the site and recommending additional, relevant content that similar farmers have engaged with and rated. 

It will also allow them to browse CPD categorised by TIAH’s Professional Framework. Personalisation will allow TIAH to actively push out relevant content related to changes in policy and legislation. All user interactions with training and CPD are recorded by the system, therefore pseudonymised evidence of training availability, uptake and impact can be fed into the potential What Works Centre. 

Recommendation 8, which describes the establishment of a What Works Centre, which should work closely with existing bodies 

We look forward to collaborating closely with existing and new bodies – including the potential What Works Centre – to reduce fragmentation and ensure that farmers and growers are signposted effectively to the training, resources and support that will help them enhance their existing knowledge and skills, and acquire new ones.