Current & Future Skills Needs of Agri-Tech

The LEP is undertaking this research to identify the current and future skills needs of the agriculture sector. Your feedback will be incredibly useful to ensure that skills support is shaped around the real needs of businesses.

Please note, the following terms are used within the survey. In this context, this is the definition that is used:

Controlled Environment Agriculture is an umbrella term for the following methods:

a. Vertical Farming: practice of growing plants under controlled conditions

b. Hydroponics: plants that are grown in the absence of soil by using nutrient solution

c. Aeroponics: plants are still grown in the absence of soil by using a nutrient solution

d. Aquaponics: form of hydroponics where nutrients are provided through the waste products of aquatic creatures

Circular Economy is about minimising waste and making the most of our resources. Adopting a circular approach would mean removing waste from your processes, or any waste that is produced is transformed into a new product to generate new income for the farm.

Question Title

* 1. How long has your business been operating?

< 1 year

1 – 5 years

5 – 10 years

> 10 years

Question Title

* 2. How many people do you employ within your business?

1 – 9

10 – 49

50 – 249

> 250

Question Title

* 3. Research has identified the following methods as a growing opportunity for agriculture. Do you use any of these methods on your farm? (tick all that apply)

Controlled environmental agriculture (definition included in the introduction)

Precision agriculture

Regenerative farming and soil management

Circular economy (definition included in the introduction)

None of the above

Question Title

* 4. If you don’t use these methods, what is the reason for that?

Lack of skills

Lack of knowledge on these methods

Lack of funding

Lack of capacity

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 5. Do you have a training budget?

Yes

Question Title

* 6. What are the key skills that your business currently requires within these identified themes? (Tick all that apply)

Environmental (i.e. understanding a farm’s carbon footprint, benchmarking this)

Health & Safety

Farm Business Admin & Accounting

Mental Health & Wellbeing

Countryside Accreditation Education (i.e. Countryside Educational Visits Accreditation Scheme)

Food Producer Accreditation (i.e. Safe and Local Supplier Accreditation)

Technical (e.g. agronomy, livestock)

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 7. How are you looking to access these skills?

Through current staff

Training/upskilling of current staff

Employing new staff

Knowledge transfer through consultants or support organisations (i.e. NFU, CLA etc.)

Local training providers (e.g. Lantra)

York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub

Question Title

* 8. If you answered ‘employing new staff’, at what level is this?

Senior management

Elementary

Question Title

* 9. Have you had any of the following challenges with recruiting new staff? (Tick all that are relevant)

Limited number of people applying for the job role (i.e. labour shortages)

Those that do apply don’t have the right level of skills (i.e. skills gaps)

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 10. If you’re looking to train current staff, where would you prefer the training is held?

External (e.g. colleges, through sector networks such as NFU, CLA etc.)

On the farm

Peer-to-peer / another farm

Through informal farmer networks

Question Title

* 11. Do any of the following factors limit you from accessing external training support?

Cost of the training

Location of the training provider

Length of the course

Lack of capacity to release staff from their day job

Virtual/online courses (i.e. prefer face-to-face)

Feel the course is too academic / focussed on qualifications

Lack of peer-to-peer training

Course too generic / difficult to apply learning in practice

College's don't have the right capacity or resource

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 12. What are the future skills that your business requires? (Tick all that apply)

Environmental (i.e. understanding a farm’s carbon footprint, benchmarking this)

Health & Safety

Farm Business Admin & Accounting

Mental Health & Wellbeing

Countryside Accreditation Education (i.e. Countryside Educational Visits Accreditation Scheme)

Food Producer Accreditation (i.e. Safe and Local Supplier Accreditation)

Technical (e.g. agronomy, livestock)

Other (please specify)

Question Title

* 13. Why are these future skills required (i.e. adapting to environmental challenges/policy changes, diversification)?

Question Title

* 14. Would you recruit new people for these skills or retrain current staff?

Recruit new staff

Retrain new staff

Question Title

* 15. The funding landscape can be very confusing and difficult to navigate right now. Is this an area where you require further skills or support?

Yes

Current & Future Skills Needs of Agri-Tech

Question Title

* 1. How long has your business been operating?

Question Title

* 2. How many people do you employ within your business?

Question Title

* 3. Research has identified the following methods as a growing opportunity for agriculture. Do you use any of these methods on your farm? (tick all that apply)

Question Title

* 4. If you don’t use these methods, what is the reason for that?

Question Title

* 5. Do you have a training budget?

Question Title

* 6. What are the key skills that your business currently requires within these identified themes? (Tick all that apply)

Question Title

* 7. How are you looking to access these skills?

Question Title

* 8. If you answered ‘employing new staff’, at what level is this?

Question Title

* 9. Have you had any of the following challenges with recruiting new staff? (Tick all that are relevant)

Question Title

* 10. If you’re looking to train current staff, where would you prefer the training is held?

Question Title

* 11. Do any of the following factors limit you from accessing external training support?

Question Title

* 12. What are the future skills that your business requires? (Tick all that apply)

Question Title

* 13. Why are these future skills required (i.e. adapting to environmental challenges/policy changes, diversification)?

Question Title

* 14. Would you recruit new people for these skills or retrain current staff?

Question Title

* 15. The funding landscape can be very confusing and difficult to navigate right now. Is this an area where you require further skills or support?

Question Title

* 16. Are there any other comments you’d like to make about your skills needs which have not been included in the previous questions?