With admissions to horticultural colleges waning in recent years, some establishments may be reluctant to publicise their student volumes. But good news is always worth shouting about and Writtle, at least, has reason to be thankful, says John Cullum, admissions tutor and head of landscape management.
Unlike Pershore, which has a plum named after it, and Hadlow, which is the garden of Kent, Writtle is not located in a big production area. However, the college has seen a strong return to form in the last couple of years with a surprising number of candidates showing an interest in enrolling onto its horticulture courses.
Hadlow College has also been on the road to recovery in the last three years since Paul Hannan came on board as vice-principal. Recently appointed as principal and chief executive of the college, Hannan says he has seen the institution go from strength to strength, with student numbers increasing to the highest ever in the college’s history. “The college has come through some difficult times, but is now one of the best performing colleges in the south east,” he says.
Before his arrival, the college was reportedly struggling to keep numbers, and significantly compromising its reputation for producing successful graduates. However, Hadlow has since invested in refurbishing student accommodation, new labs and classrooms as well as transport and marketing in an attempt to shake off its former image.
Cullum believes one of the secrets of Writtle’s success is the variety and breadth of its course selection. “We offer six honours degrees and six foundation courses. That doesn’t mean six separate courses but we offer 60 modules on the overall horticulture scheme which are packaged in different ways. When groups of parents and school leavers visit the college and ask, why is Writtle the best? I say, largely because we offer more choice than anybody else, which is why we are three times bigger.”
Some first-year modules are compulsory but this has proven very useful for gearing students towards aspects of the course that they might not otherwise have considered, such as commercial horticulture, he says. “A lot of students don’t know what they want to do when they come in and it’s not until they get some practical experience that they realise what’s on offer, in this field. There is not usually a great interest in production to start with but that’s often because they have no experience of it.”
Jim Monaghan, senior lecturer in fresh produce at Harper Adams, agrees that fresh produce has been too long afflicted with a negative image. “I think there is a lack of awareness among the general public about the importance of fresh produce and a lack of awareness about how exciting the fresh produce industry can be. “
Harper Adams recruits around 120 students for its agriculture courses, of which 15 per cent will opt for fresh produce options. However, Monaghan says a considerable percentage of agriculturally-trained graduates ultimately end up routeing towards fresh produce. “Once they’ve gone through the system they will often look at pursuing a career with a large fresh produce company, such as Geest or Langmead ,but at 17 they’ve never heard of them. They only know Sainsbury’s or Tesco, not the actual producers of the tomatoes on their table. The students need to be exposed to the fresh produce industry as early as possible; when they understand what’s involved they want to make that choice but it’s the role of Harper Adams, along with other colleges, to make it an attractive option for them. Fresh produce is always losing out to the bigger brand names in agriculture because young people do not know the big names in horticulture.”
With experience of both agriculture and horticulture, Monaghan believes he is not alone in appreciating the benefits of making the transition. “I am a classic case of someone who has done cereals, discovered fresh produce and would never go back to cereals again. People think fresh produce has no glamour but, then, they have not gone chasing citrus across the globe. There are also plenty of opportunities to make good money in the more technical roles. That’s why we really have to find a way of selling it to the students. “
This responsibility extends to businesses as well as colleges, says Monaghan. “There is role for the industry to get involved with educational establishments, to tell them what a great industry this is and put their money where their mouth is.”
As with any other higher education programme, insufficient financial support can be a real drawback for a lot of young people interested in enrolling, says Monaghan. To this end, Harper Adams is seeking co-operation from major businesses in attracting students who will be an asset to the industry. All students currently do a year’s placement in industry, but Monaghan is appealing to businesses to invest in their future employees from the outset by offering scholarships to students prepared to complete their mid-course internship with them.
“There is definitely interest within the industry,” says Monaghan. “I have already been approached by three fresh produce businesses which are extremely well-known in the industry.”
As part of its ongoing investment in fresh produce, Harper Adams is set to introduce an additional course next October, called fresh produce management. Writtle, meanwhile has abeen re-structuring in a different direction. “Our philosophy about the course has been changing,” says Cullum. “Traditionally we favoured two-year HND courses, with a sandwich year but we have moved towards degrees and away from technical HNDs.” While Cullum expounds the benefits of a year in the industry in preparing students for future employment, since an increasing number of the yearly intake are mature students, it is not always appropriate. “It would be difficult to enforce something like that now especially for those on part-time courses or with young families, but we do, of course, still strongly encourage it.” It is especially beneficial given the close-knit nature of the industry, he claims. “If potential employers see students have worked for one person in the industry on a placement they are not going to phone me for a reference, they’ll just go straight to the horse’s mouth, as it were.”
And last year’s graduate employment figures from HESA (Higher Education Standards Agency) suggest Writtle students are making a good impression within the industry. For the first time, the horticulture scheme managed to achieve 100 per cent employment. “That doesn’t happen every year but it was very pleasing indeed. And we are looking at a really wide range of jobs, from contract manager at a landscaping company, assistant manager at a plant nursery, to glasshouse production manager.”
Despite this very pleasing state of affairs, Cullum is quick to highlight the college does not operate on the basis of grooming students to fill current holes in the industry but, rather, endeavours to prepare them for whichever path they wish to pursue within the expansive realms of horticulture.
Another development at Writtle has been the decision not to conduct wide-scale horticultural production on-site. “These days production is done on such a large scale that students need to learn from what’s actually going on in the industry and it’s just not financially viable to have small patches of a large number of crops in production just for a coupe of relevant classes a year.” The college is hoping to construct new glasshouses in the next few years, to be compartmentalised for research projects.
Cullum says when interviewing interested candidates, as well as opening Writtle’s doors to people of all ages, he is more than willing to consider people from a wide range of backgrounds. As well as enlisting students of a varied age range, he is contacted by people of all backgrounds, as diverse as teaching and finance “I think they are finding a niche within the industry, going straight into management positions. It’s because they bring a lot of experience with them.”
Cullum highlights that the industry has perhaps been remiss up to now in realising the sheer potential of such candidates whose initial portfolio might seem incongruous with industry requirements. “Among the bankers or teachers there can be some real gems,” he says.
In addition, some employers may be setting the bar too high, he suggests. “There may be some employers who expect students to come in and be able to do everything straight away but they are having to be a bit more flexible.
Redfox Executive Selection’s HR and training consultant, Daryon Eldridge, agrees that some companies would be well-served to allocate a little more support to new recruits during their probationary periods. “Some companies have said they are quite surprised that their graduates don’t have a certain level of expertise. I think there’s a lot more that could be done in helping them adjust.”
Having worked in a variety of different fields, Eldridge says this industry can be particularly challenging for beginners. “It’s a very fast-paced environment and they are under pressure to pick things up quickly but there could be a much better link between the larger colleges and businesses in the industry. It’s important for fresh produce companies to have an induction programme for everybody but particularly recent graduates. The larger, more forward-thinking companies do realise this but others just complain that they are disappointed with their graduates and leave it at that.”
According to Eldridge, staff training is an area ripe for development in fresh produce.
“Some people think they are OK as they are. They do a lot of technical training but they can’t see that if they are going to develop their businesses they need to think about people skills. Changes are happening so rapidly in this industry and the companies doing well will be the ones investing in people as much as anything else.”
Eldridge joined Redfox around 18 months ago but her combined knowledge of fresh produce and human resources and training, spans more than a decade. “They took me on at Redfox to provide a different kind of service,” she says. “There are a number of large companies offering training programmes but I think we are the only ones specialising in fresh produce. It has really helped having experience of the industry because I understand what they are talking about and the pressures in this industry are like no other I’ve ever worked in. Fresh produce people don’t want to sit in a classroom and talk about theories, they want to talk about what’s really happening and learn practical things that they can do something with. They also can’t afford to be taking a lot of time off for these kind of things so it is important to offer on-site services.”
The benefit of being a small operation is the ability to tailor training programmes to the individual needs of each customer, Eldridge claims. While she does offer short day or half-day courses on a wide range of topics, from leadership and stress management to employment law, she says her preferred method is to build long-term relationships with interested companies, in order to provide ongoing advice and support in implementing the skills learned. “I am still working with all the people I started with and have just secured two large contracts which will keep us busy for the next couple of years.” However, Eldridge believes the industry will be increasingly drawn to such methods of training. And while she is keen to retain the personal approach she believes has been a key factor in the venture’s success, she says the company is fully equipped to accommodate any surges in demand.
As well as offering long-term courses in commercial horticulture, Pershore college runs numerous short courses to people already established within the industry looking to further their skills in a particular area. Pershore’s food and drink development course manager, Tony Mutukumira, says the college offers courses of all lengths from a few days to a few years, for all levels of ability, in post-harvest topics, such as fruit orcharding and food safety and hygiene. “We have seen a great interest in the food safety courses this year because of the impending changes to the food legislation regulations,” he claims.
Monaghan and Cullum agree that, as for anyone in the industry, the main concern is trying to recruit enough well-rounded, young people, capable of adapting to the diverse demands of the industry and willing to commit to what Monaghan calls the “boom and bust” of a physically gruelling industry.
At Writtle, trying to attract school leavers is a perpetual concern for the college. It has a member of staff dedicated to scheduling career events and open days but the staff are realistic about the likely scale of their recruiting success. “At the end of the day, perhaps one in 1,000 students is going to choose horticulture, which will amount to maybe one or two interested parties at any one event but that still makes it worthwhile,” Cullum says. “We are all very optimistic. It is still a great industry to enter into, and the employment opportunities really are good.”
Monaghan is equally keen to think positive: “I’m not downbeat because I can see that there are such great prospects for good well-grounded individuals with a grasp of production, marketing and all the other skills required along the supply chain. The downside is how do you tell a17 year-old ‘you will really want this job in five years time’? But we are committed to making fresh produce a key area at Harper Adams and we will put more and more resources into it as we go forward.”
