LEARNING FOR LIFE Seeking rural careers for young people
THE mismatch between the numbers of new young graduates and available jobs continues. Take law as an example: the oversupply of new graduates who aspire to become solicitors or barristers continues and, having amassed huge debts, some are seeing their high hopes dashed with no realistic prospects of progressing in their chosen profession. At the same time some professions and industries have been recording a shortage of graduates to fill available jobs.
Various branches of engineering have been citing shortages of new entrants for many years. Engineering UK states that an estimated 257,000 new vacancies will have to be filled in the years up to 2022 and at the current time this does not appear to be an achievable target. Another area of deep concern relates to the global shortage of graduate entrants to commercial horticulture on the food production side of the industry. Kent’s Garden of England title pays tribute to the county’s ability to produce fruit, vegetables, hops, salads and other crops.
Our farmers and growers are amongst the best in the UK yet it is a fact that many of them are finding it difficult to fill graduate vacancies. The basic problem relates to the fact that career advisors have little knowledge of production horticulture and the progressive opportunities afforded by the industry both in this country and abroad.
Failure to recruit students has caused many universities and colleges to withdraw their commercial/production horticulture degree programmes.
The seriousness of the situation should be assessed in line with the requirement to produce sufficient food to fulfil the needs of a burgeoning global population. This is all the more crucial when we consider the devastating effects climate change is already having on food production in some parts of the world. Without doubt this is an exciting and fulfilling time to consider a career in production horticulture.
Alan Harvey, who heads up Hadlow College’s BSc (Hons) programme - one of the few thriving courses – says: “The opportunities offered in the industry are wide-ranging and include research, crop management, quality control, crop protection and biosecurity, business management, marketing and a great deal more.
“The industry is fast-moving, challenging and very rewarding and I encourage all young people and their parents and advisors to investigate this option”.
Obtaining a degree costs money, time and hard work at the end of which the graduate would like to believe the world is his oyster
By Pat Crawford
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vw..inviicta.viiaviat.org.uk Maidstone Weald October 2017
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