How to do Business

I’ve spent a lot of the last 6 months looking at the workforce needs of the horticultural industry. This week the report was reviewed in Horticultural Week. Here’s a short extract from the article

“What keeps us awake at night?” asks an investigation into the future of the horticulture industry’s workforce written by South East England Development Agency workforce champion and grower Dr Alan Rae.

The answer, from the growers he interviewed is clear. Worry number one – where will the next generation of leaders for the production horticulture come from? Worry number two – the need for a stable supply of well-trained workers to drive the business and handle peaks effectively.

While both concerns have of course been with us for many years, they have each been exacerbated in recent times by a combination of factors, not least declining profit margins and the gradual erosion of the public infrastructure required to develop and expand the industry’s knowledge base.

The two articles in this weeks horticultural week can be seen here and here

Here is the slide set explaining what’s in the report presented to a recent South East NFU conference.

The full report – 24 pages – plus some case studies and video clips can be downloaded via the Growing Jobs site.