Tim Allen met with Dr Tim Whitaker. Principal and Chief Executive Officer at Askham Bryan College earlier today to present the Aiskew project and discuss the wider aspects of agritech and further education.

We were interested to learn from Dr. Whitaker that they are working with other institutions to develop vocational qualifications for the sector, as none currently exist.  The conversation was around the reality that many of the jobs at the site would evolve around technical support for maintaining growing environments, servicing hi-tech equipment and setting up automated growing machinery.

This would be skilled work, where vocational qualifications would be important to ensure that standards could be maintained, and facilities could operate as efficiently as possible.