“We need to renew our efforts for taking the message about the diversity of our industry and exciting new technical innovations into schools in order to drive recruitment,” says Peter Arrand, president of BAGMA (British Agricultural and Garden Machinery Association).

Earlier in the year, he was responsible for re-establishing a new BAGMA Training and Education Committee in order to test out and feed back ideas to the cross party Landbased Engineering, Training and Education Committee (LE-TEC).

“Like all industries, we face on-going challenges to recruit, train and then retain quality staff across dealerships,” he told the latest episode of the Inside Agri-Turf podcast.

Peter Arrand also talked about the role that he and the rest of the committee are playing in formulating the qualification details of the relevant category for the new T Levels that launch this year where the emphasis is on technical rather than academic studies.

He said he hoped that this different route will encourage more young people to consider industries like ours, “which is why it is important to get to them in the early stages of their schooling”.

The podcast conversation with Peter Arrand about the current state of the industry followed those with Paul Hemingway, president of IAgrE and Les Malin, president of AEA.

There have been 10 episodes in the first series of Inside Agri-Turf, launched and produced by Chris Biddle, the founder of Service Dealer.

Chris says, “The podcast is an independent, non-commercial view of the industry. It’s been great fun talking to those at the heart of the industry and I’ve learned a great deal about podcast production over the past few weeks. There will be a new series launching in the Autumn.”