The Transport & General Workers Union (T&G) has welcomed the government’s new skills initiative on food, agriculture and horticulture.
The Sector Skills Agreement for the Environmental and Land-based Sector, launched today, outlines a 12-point action plan aimed at improving business performance, developing the skills of agricultural workers, and raising the quality of new recruits to the sector.
The T&G said skills training was essential for the workforce, employers and customers in the environmental and land-based sector.
“We need to attract and keep young people in these industries, and skills training and development is an important part of that,” said Chris Kaufman, T&G national secretary. “If we develop an individual, they are going to be more productive at work which helps the company and, therefore, its customers.”
Kaufman, who attended the launch in central London with MP Barry Gardiner, parliamentary secretary for biodiversity, landscape and rural affairs, said the T&G was already putting plans in place to take the initiative forward across the regions.
“We will be working closely with major employers in food, agriculture and horticulture to put the good intentions of today into the skills of tomorrow,” he said.
