AgriScot Skills Competition Open for Business

The date for AgriScot has been moved to 9 February 2022, however, the various farm of the year awards and competitions hosted at the event are now in full flow.

The AgriScot Business Skills competition - designed to encourage young people aged 18-25 to develop their farm and business management skills – has now opened for entries.

The competition, which will see the winner presented with a £1,000 cheque courtesy of sponsors, NFU Mutual seeks to assess young agricultural professionals on a range of business tasks.

Robert Neill, AgriScot Chairman, explained more:

“It is great that we are able to proceed with the AgriScot Business Skills competition as normal this year after an enforced break in 2020. Initial entry is by a short essay, from which semi-finalists will be selected to take part in regional (North and South) on-farm heats.”

“I would encourage any young person, student, graduate, apprentice, farm worker or anyone working in the wider agricultural industry to take part.”

“I have heard from previous participants how taking part in the competition has helped them to develop their skills, contacts and provided an interesting addition to their CV’s.”

“Of course, the £1,000 prize has proven very useful to previous winners and we are hugely grateful to NFU Mutual for their generosity in providing this prize.”

Jack Cooper, from Aberdeen, the 2019 winner stated:

“I found the whole process of taking part in the competition interesting and challenging and it helped to develop my skills and knowledge, especially in the financial aspects of farm business management.”

“I would definitely encourage others to enter the AgriScot Business Skills Competition.”

The competition is supported and facilitated by Heather Kerr, a lecturer at SRUC. Thanks to the efforts of Heather and her predecessor, many of the finalists and winners in previous years have come from the various SRUC campuses. For this year organisers are hopeful that SRUC students will continue to enter the competition in significant numbers but are also working to encourage young people from other educational institutions, modern apprenticeships, and those already in the workplace to enter.

“I would love to see young people from colleges, universities, young farmers clubs and agricultural businesses all over the country putting themselves forward for this competition. In fact, I would lay down a direct challenge to establishments like Harper Adams, RAU Cirencester and organisations such as SAYFC to encourage their students, graduates and members to enter this invaluable competition,” Mr Neill concluded.

Would-be competitors are encouraged to email info@agriscot.co.uk for details on the essay topic for initial competition entry.

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