Rebuilding the agricultural workforce: report to the Business/Higher Education Round Table

The Business/Higher Education Roundtable commissioned the Allen Consulting Group to conduct a scoping study that reviews the effectiveness of current interventions designed to increase the number of people with higher education qualifications in the agricultural workforce. The study was asked to develop an 'intervention logic' with short and medium term actions that will significantly improve the supply of skilled people to the agriculture sector. The project brief identified that a number of matters relating to the issue under consideration were well established, including: the crucial importance of a skilled workforce for the future of the agriculture sector; the increasingly strong demand for these skills; and the intransigence of response in supply of skilled people, despite a number of interventions by several relevant agencies. Recognising this, the main purpose of the study was to identify what can be done to address the problem of declining enrolments in agriculture related qualifications. The methodology comprised five phases: desktop review; consultation and data requests; identification of intervention strategies; evaluation of intervention strategies; and the final report, including analysis of the potential impact from adopting the most effective form of intervention.

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