Agriculture & Horticulture Skills Leadership Group

Building a skilled workforce in agriculture and horticulture is one of the greatest opportunities of our time.

To meet the challenge of modern farming and environmental practice and to stay competitive, we need to be ambitious about developing our people. This means getting better organised to maintain and attract sufficient labour with the right skills for the future.  

Our UK industry currently under invests in people development compared to competitors and is fragmented in delivering training, skills, continuing professional development and career routes nationally. 

The industry has a wealth of excellent providers and stakeholders in this area, but there is no single entry point for critical information, no go to coordinating body accessible to all. 

Following a bold new skills strategy developed by AHDB, the Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH) has been established as an independent organisation.

TIAH will:

• Develop a professional framework of competencies and qualifications around specific job roles
• Ensure future qualifications and continuous professional development meets the technical and business needs of employers
• Develop and promote clear career paths and ways to progress
• Provide business support for employees and employers

As the professional body, TIAH will serve as a coordinating force, similar to the Construction Industries Training Board for the building industry.

It will work to drive transformational change: positive attitudes towards personal development, seeing training and skills as an investment not just a cost; improving the industry’s professional profile to new recruits and inspiring employees and employers towards lifelong learning.

TIAH will become a one-stop place to go, a shop window, for careers information, linking through to and promoting all existing providers of training and CPD. 

It will build a database of members and record their career credentials over time. 

Future of Skills Fringe

The NFU's Next Generation Forum and AHDB hosted a fringe event at the prestigious Oxford Farming Conference to help launch a new multi-agency vision to transform the skills landscape.

You can watch the full fringe session below, held on 7 January 2020 (video courtesy of Oxford Farming Conference).