Agriculture

How Can I Develop My Skills?

Employers often seek a range of transferable skills, such as communication, problem-solving, and teamwork, in addition to the subject-specific skills and knowledge you will gain during your degree. Below are some ideas of how to develop these transferable skills during your degree; make sure you look at the ‘What can I do?’ pages for even more ideas.

Typical employers in this sub-sector

Farms and agricultural contractors

The National Farmers Union website produces and job vacancy database, and a directory of relevant organisations.

Government departments

Various Government departments and bodies focus on different areas of the agri-food industry:

• The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
• Natural England
• The Agri-food and Biosciences Institute

Research institutions and organisations

Agri-food is a fast-paced industry facing a range of environmental and consumer-related issues that require innovative research solutions.

• Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) is a scheme where graduates work with an academic or research organisation to support a UK business on a specific project focused on innovation for 12 – 36 months. Innovate UK list vacancies and have further news and information on their website
• Viewing the relevant agri-food vacancies on Jobs.ac.uk will give you an idea of the various research organisations and departments. 
• ADAS is the UK's largest independent provider of agricultural and environmental consultancy, rural development services and policy advice.
• Government list of centres for agricultural innovation (including Agrimetics, crop health, livestock and agricultural engineering). Each website this leads to is different, but navigating will lead to opportunities and/or lists of institutions and organisations involved.
• One of Europe’s leading Biotech clusters is based around the Cambridge area, with several research and industrial organisations close together.
• Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) supports research, people and institutions.

Roles

Visit Tasty Careers for a detailed list of job descriptions, both graduate and non-graduate, across the industry.

There are also several relevant job profiles in the environmental and agriculture sector on the Prospects website including:

• agricultural consultant
• animal nutritionist
• plant breeder/geneticist
• soil scientist

Demand for specialist roles that combine disciplines is growing, for example using bioinformatics to analyse data and programming skills for simulations. 

Prospects - graduate opportunities in agriculture

Agricultural sciences and business management students move into a wide range of different careers after graduation, including farm management, consultancy, agronomy and farm trading, agricultural policy, academia, marketing and communications, starting a new business and various roles in the food industry.

Some of the employers who have recruited our graduates

• Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB)
• Animal and Plant Agency
• Brown & Co
• Cargill
• Evolution Foods
• Frontier Agriculture
• Hazlewoods
• Holkham Farming
• IDEXX
• Langmead Produce
• Moundsmere Estate Management
• Pro Cam
• Strutt and Parker

Some of the roles secured by our graduates

• Agricultural assurance manager
• Agricultural business consultant
• Farm business consultant
• Graduate consultant
• Graduate farm manager
• Graduate trainee, supply
• Histology lab scientist
• Pig and poultry nutritionist
• Plant health and seed inspector
• Trainee accountant
• Trainee agronomist

Qualifications

While there are specialist degrees available, many of the roles across the agri-food industry will be relevant to those with a biology, chemistry, engineering or healthcare-related degree.

Skills

Specific skills will vary between different jobs, but a career in this industry is likely to require the following:

• The ability to formulate and communicate ideas
• Negotiating, marketing skills to support new product/business development
• Role-specific technical and analytical skills
• The ability to conduct work safely and ethically, and to explain it clearly
• Strong communications skills – able to work collaboratively with colleagues and to build effective relationships with customers/clients
• Enthusiasm and commitment

Recruitment processes

Large recruiters such as supermarkets or Government departments will have clearly defined and well-advertised graduate recruitment processes, often starting their recruitment in the autumn term, prior to graduation for roles starting the following summer.

Smaller organisations such as specialist retailers, research consultancies, agricultural businesses, etc, are more likely to recruit as demand arises.

Vacancy sources

Specialist recruitment agencies and job boards include:

Farmers Weekly 
Jobs section searchable by type of job

Agricultural & Farming Jobs 
One of the sector's specialist jobs boards

Jobs.ac.uk 
Advertises research roles within the agri-food industry

More People - recruitment agency covering the fresh food, horticulture, agriculture and garden industry sectors

De Lacy – recruitment agency in global agricultural recruitment

Each year a number of agriculture graduates start postgraduate courses either at Nottingham or at other universities.  Some examples of the types of courses Nottingham graduates study include MSc Agri-Food, PhD Crop Science, PhD Sustainable soil management and accountancy training courses.

Search for courses and find out about funding

Thinking about a PhD? How to get started and how to apply

Gaining relevant and practical work experience can help support you with securing a job after graduation. Contacting the University Farm managers or staff is a great way to build on your hands-on farming experience right here on Sutton Bonington campus. Hands-on experience is useful for any role in the agricultural industry. You could also think about harvest or lambing positions during university vacations.

• The University Farm website
• Lambing work experience
• 4xtrahands recruitment agency
• Farmer’s Weekly jobs

Year in industry

Why not take an optional industry placement, between years two and three of your degree? This will extend your degree to a four-year programme.

Find out more about the year in industry

Summer internships

Summer internships are also a great way to gain experience, whether in science or non-science based roles. Search for roles:

• Farmer’s Weekly Jobs
• MyCareer - internships from companies targeting Nottingham students
• Nottingham Internship Scheme

Contact companies directly

Approach companies for work experience opportunities.  Several agronomy companies have said they’re happy for Nottingham students to approach them and arrange to shadow one of their agronomists for a day or two.  As well as giving you an insight into the role, this would be a great addition to your CV.

Summer research placements

f you’re interested in the scientific side of your degree, summer research placements might be a good option for you.  You can find these through the School of Biosciences by approaching a relevant academic who is working in the area you are interested in.

There are also sponsored opportunities and funding for summer research placements, visit:

• Royal Society of Biology Studentships
• The Henry Plumb Foundation
• National Farmers Union - for contacts within the industry

Students’ Union activities

Involvement in relevant SU activities including volunteering, sports clubs and societies can help you to develop and enhance skills that employers look for such as working in multidisciplinary teams, communicating scientific information to a non-science audience and consulting with local businesses.

• Full list of the Students' Union's student societies
• Volunteering opportunities

Nottingham Advantage Award

The Nottingham Advantage Award offers a range of modules to help you expand, develop and evidence your skills and experience during your time at university. With over more than 200 modules across our three campus in the UK, China and Malaysia, there's something for everyone.

If you’re thinking of moving into consultancy after graduation, the Nottingham Consultancy Challenge module will help you develop and demonstrate all the right skills.

Explore Nottingham Advantage Award modules

Stay updated with Industry News

Knowing about the latest developments is important for a couple of reasons: firstly it may spark off your interest in a particular part of the sector and secondly, employers often ask questions about the factors that may be affecting their company at an interview as a way of gauging your interest in their business. Try the following resources - check out any events or directories of employers too.

• NFU - free membership for students
• British Society of Animal Science
• Agricultural Economics Society
• Institute of Agricultural Management