Commission for the land-based learning review: report to Scottish Ministers

3. The backdrop to all land-based sector employment and careers

The Commission has endeavoured to establish an overview of the labour market. The types and numbers of job roles in the Sector are difficult to establish due to coding and aggregation of data. This has implications for accurate intelligence on current and future requirements.

Graphs 1 and 2 confirm the well understood demographic challenge that Scotland has ageing population with fewer employees entering the job market. The increasing number of 45–64 year-olds does provide an opportunity for some greater Sector focus on career changers. SDS forecast data supplied to the Commission indicated:

‘Employment in Scotland’s Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sector over the mid-term (2022 to 2025), the overall total requirement is expected to be around 10,200, with 400 people forecast to be required due to expansion in the sector and 9,800 people required due to replacement demand.’

Over 20,000 people are forecast to be required in the sector over the next 10 years with the majority replacing those workers who leave the labour market due to retirement and other reasons.’

It is recognised that some industries within the Sector are expanding and that where there are overlapping skills requirements (e.g. Forestry and Peatland Restoration) there may also be migration of jobs within the Sector as a result.

The majority of Agriculture working occupiers and spouses are older than 55^[4]. SDS analysis indicates that in 2021, over half of those working in the sector are aged 50 or over in both Scotland as whole (51%) and Rural Scotland specifically (54%^[5]).

Employee age is an issue facing other sectors and one that has to be addressed by a greater industry focus on training a replacement workforce. That will involve attracting a new pipeline of talent into the Sector from a relatively fixed number of school leavers. School/College/University leavers are sought after by other competitive industries, also experiencing skills shortages, who may offer better pay and working conditions, have a larger marketing budget or just have a greater appeal or more familiar to the school leaver (for example, hairdressing).

Source: NRS 2021

Source: NRS 2021

Other re-training/upskilling opportunities for the existing workforce and strategies to ‘widen the recruitment pool’, attract and support more women and other underrepresented groups and adult career changers into the sector and retain or share their existing skills as a trainer, will need to be considered.

While precise understanding of future jobs needs is uncertain, there is a need for a flexible education and training system to respond timeously to the Sector’s needs and to support the changes in land-management needed to tackle the nature and climate emergency whilst supporting sustainable production and food security. At the time of writing, consultation was open on both the Agriculture Bill and the UK Forestry Standard, both of which will influence future skills development priorities.

The perception that the Sector is poorly paid and unskilled is not entirely unfounded, with no mandatory requirement for professional registration or formally certified qualifications for many of roles in the industry. Currently, other than legislative requirements for short course training such as chainsaws and forklifts, there is no mandatory qualification requirement for any role within the Sector nor is there a requirement for professional registration (excluding the veterinary professions). Mandatory registration is required within Horticulture as a ‘Professional Plants Operator’, but no mandatory training is required.

Industry bodies and schemes such as the Farm Business Adviser Accreditation Scheme for Scotland (FBAASS), The British Agrochemical Standards Inspection Scheme (BASIS), the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), the National Plant Operators Registration Scheme (NPORS), the Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IagrE) and the Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF), operate voluntary registration schemes, which are often a contract requirement, within some of the land-based industries.

3.1 Data set limitations

The Labour market intelligence (LMI) data sets for the Sector within the scope of this report are unclear and confused by aggregated Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) and Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes. Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing come under one SIC code^[6], although there are related activities in Professional, scientific and technical activities (Urban planning and landscape, Environmental Consulting, etc.) and in Manufacturing (Food production, Sawmilling etc.). The resulting lack of detail for a specific sector can hamper effective strategic planning, with many forecasts based on third party data analysis and independent research^[7]. Where commissioned industry body research has been undertaken within sectors such as Trees and Timber^[8] and Aquaculture^[9], more robust and specific data and insight is available to inform Sector recruitment issues and planning but requires regular review. For smaller industries this is largely absent.

However, the emerging message across all sector reports, Commission engagement and available forecasts, is one of fewer suitable applicants applying for a wide range of job vacancies, where increasing STEM skills (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) are required. It is against this common backdrop that this report explores the issue behind this and how they can be addressed.

Recommendations

• Amend the annual compulsory Agriculture Census to include specific Labour Market Intelligence (LMI) questions, which can be used by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and others to inform the Sector’s skills needs more accurately.
• Identify opportunities to add LMI questions to other Sector surveys sent out by the Scottish Government or related agencies.