Page 52 - Regional Employment & Skills Plan 2019

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• A financial incentive to help older farmers to retire in the hope of freeing up land,
• Reversing the loss of council-owned holdings,
• A financial incentive which would encourage older farmers to retire, creating room for younger new
entrants to the sector.54
The cluster group discussed the need to support the development of initiatives to promote and improve sector perception to primary and secondary schools. In addition individuals deemed as NEET or at risk of becoming NEET, should also be considered as their success will undoubtedly signpost more employees, who will require training. The cluster agrees that a supply chain approach, from gate to plate, to promote the industry should be adopted, with forecast budgets for training aligned with these goals.
The perception of the sector was seen as a significant issue for 40% of the medium and large sized enter- prises which responded to the survey, with recruitment being reported as their most prolific challenge. This is a particularly pertinent issue within the food manufacturing sector as a change to the labour pool availability of migrant workers could leave a significant short-fall of staff within the region, exacerbated by the recruitment challenges expressed.
Work-readiness
56% of respondents indicated that work readiness is an issue with new entrants. Similarly to other sectors respondents indicated that they are missing the work experience and the skills that employers look for. In addition to this, 50% of respondents stated that they feel ‘entrants tend to have poor attitudes or motivation’.
Cluster group members expected this figure to be higher but stated that this could be related to the fact that many farms in Wales tend to be family owned and family run, this therefore suggests that it may be less likely that skills challenges and work readiness issues are identified.
This is substantiated below;
‘The principal farmers are the largest group of workers. These are partners in the farm business and draw an income from the profits. In recent years the balance between full and part time farmers has been shifting with a greater proportion of part timers.
Regular workers work on the farm on a continuous basis. They may be members of the farmer’s family, they may be paid or unpaid. The number of regular workers is relatively small and the majority of farms in Wales do not have any regular workers. All of the work on the farm is undertaken by farmers and their partners. Additional workers are employed on a short–term basis during busy periods.’ 55
Closer inference of the data indicates that work readiness tends to be more of an issue for those medium and large sized enterprises (which have been identified as food manufacturing businesses) with 94% of these respondents stating that work readiness varies amongst new entrants.
Skills Challenges
On the whole, the vast majority (76%) of respondents reported that they are not experiencing skills challenges. Those that are, reported that these skills challenges are prevalent in ‘Administrative & Secretarial occupations’ (39%), ‘Process, plant and machine operatives’ (30%) and ‘Skilled trade occupations’ (27%).
54 http://betternews.co.uk/royal-welsh-show-fuw-urges-help-for-young-farmers
55 https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/statistics-and-research/2018-12/180130-welsh-agricultural-statistics-2016-ency.pdf
Regional Employment & Skills Plan South West & Mid Wales
Sector Profiles