Hadlow College is offering a range of new degree courses such as sustainable land management in the face of climate change and at a time when many of its graduates believe opportunities in the fresh produce sector, in the UK and overseas, are set to expand.
Sarah Calcutt graduated from the Kent college with an HND in commercial horticulture and worked in the sector before returning to Hadlow as business development manager. She is now technical manager at Norman Collett.
“We are all becoming more aware of the issues involved [in climate change] and there is far more understanding of the need to reduce food miles,” said Calcutt. “The planet is facing a huge dilemma and…we are planning for vastly increased demand for home-produced fruit.”
Nigel Stewart earned his national diploma in horticulture in the 1980s and several posts later is now quality manager at Norman Collett. He believes the industry has a lot to offer new entrants.
“Very strong competition from overseas has achieved some sorting out in the industry and resulted in noticeable improvements and the UK is back to producing some of the best apples and pears in the world,” he said.
Nigel Jenner, pictured, followed up his national diploma with an advanced certificate in 1994-95. Before joining Norman Collett he had worked with Adas and Hutchinsons and is now technical director at Collett’s.
“The recent climate weeded out the less professional growers leaving those who are more focused and geared up for the challenges ahead,” he said. “The quality of UK fruit continues to improve and now matches anything imported from overseas. It is encouraging to see the supermarkets increasingly supportive of the UK industry.”
Sarah Blackford earned the same diploma in 1984 but went into the glasshouse sector before becoming a horticultural marketing and then Soil Association inspector. In 2005 she set up Farming Matters Ltd to continue inspections under contract to the Soil Association, and also works on the Growing England’s Organic Enterprises project
