Lantra is the Sector Skills Council for the land-based sector. It's an independent, UK-wide charity that exists to ensure the skills needs of the sector are met. Their work supports a just transition to a green economy in areas such as education, agriculture, environment, aquaculture, forestry, and conservation. Lantra plays a key role in supporting the rural economy and is essentially the 'hub' between the sector, education, skills agencies, and new entrants, helping to ensure that any barriers are overcome and that new projects and initiatives are seen through to completion.
Their work helps to support the continued growth and resilience of key rural industries, not only by ensuring that they have access to the right training and qualified trainers, but also by helping to ensure that funding is available to support those who want to learn. For example, the Climate Change, Women in Agriculture, Women in Rural Economies, and Women in Forestry training funds have supported many new entrants and those looking to develop their careers. Lantra works to maintain skills by ensuring that career seekers, career changers, up-skillers, and employers are fully aware of the wide range of training and learning opportunities available and that the training meets their needs. Whether it is supporting the review of existing provision such as apprenticeship frameworks or HNs, helping to fill gaps in short course provision such as Muirburn or Green Roof training, or supporting the development of new trainers to ensure these skills are passed on, Lantra is at the heart of rural and land-based training, helping to ensure that the sector can meet its skills needs.
Their aim is to promote the rural and countryside sector to a wider and more diverse audience as a positive and rewarding career choice. This is achieved by working to ensure that the different routes into the outdoor industries are clearly signposted and that work in the sector is recognized as enjoyable, interesting, rewarding, and secure. Lantra runs the Awards for Land Based and Aquaculture Skills (the ALBAS), delivers the VirtRural online careers seminar, and takes part in a wide range of school and careers events across the country. They are supported in this work by the 'Industry Champion' initiative, a scheme that provides training and career development support to ALBAS finalists in return for helping Lantra 'spread the word' about land-based industries. The Champions have recorded videos, taken part in case studies and careers evenings, and helped to encourage more people to consider a career in the sector. Lantra is constantly looking to improve what they do and how they do it. They ensure they are responsive to the needs of others, engage and consult to ensure their work meets the needs of the sector, and communicate their activities. They have increased their work with schools, reached out to more businesses, and broadened their audience through new communication channels. This year they also ran drama workshops which helped to 'sense-check' perceptions of careers in agriculture and Lantra will use the results to further improve how they engage with their audiences. They work closely with the Scottish Government and agencies to ensure that their work meets their needs, while ensuring that the needs of the sector are understood and recognized. To this end, Lantra has produced toolkits to help employers take on apprentices and an induction pack to support new entrants to the forestry industry.
In Scotland they have a full-time Sustainability Co-Ordinator who leads on ensuring that the courses and qualifications Lantra is involved with have a strong sustainability content. They help to co-ordinate and develop sustainability, carbon reduction, and climate management skills initiatives across the organization and help to communicate land and nature-based as a 'green career'. They are involved in their Sustainability Committee, which meets 4 times a year, with a remit to share best practice, develop and deliver an inclusive sustainability events calendar, identify training and development opportunities, and feed into the Lantra Sustainability Working Group, a higher level group that works to review and achieve the targets set out in the Carbon Reduction Plan. This group includes key individuals whose roles and responsibilities have a significant relationship with or impact on sustainability. As part of this work, Lantra has just produced a sustainable purchasing checklist to be used across the organization, encouraging everyone to consider local suppliers and the 'end of life' aspects of purchasing. All employees have also received carbon literacy training. In Scotland, Lantra's work plan is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Just Transition to a Green Economy. They also play a key role in supporting the delivery of key sector skills plans outside of Lantra, such as the Scottish Forest and Timber Technologies Skills Industry Leadership Group. Within these forums, they have actively promoted fair work and the sharing of good practice in this area.
Lantra has come a long way in recent years. They have had to change what they do a number of times to meet the needs of the sector, industries, and the Scottish Government. But each time they have had to change their approach, or take on a new project or initiative, they have done so with the confidence that it is the right approach, based on extensive stakeholder consultation, close work with partners, and their experience and understanding of the sector. The Scotland team may be small, but they work hard to deliver for the sector and for Lantra, and in this regard, Lantra was delighted to learn that the Scotland team was awarded three stars in the Best Companies survey, the highest standard of workplace engagement.
Working in the skills sector, every day is a challenge, but Lantra takes the approach that every challenge is an opportunity. For example, when researching how best to promote careers in agriculture, the diversity of roles and the resulting difficulty in 'selling' the sector was communicated as a challenge. Lantra turned this on its head and worked with others to create a marketing campaign and event that focused on the best of farming - that you can be a business manager, a driver, a shearer, a teacher and more - all while being a farmer. If individuals don't know what they want to do when they leave school, they can do it all in farming. When pandemic restrictions meant that Lantra couldn't do its normal external work, it shifted its focus and created the Skills Matching Service, which helped those with animal welfare commitments to get help if they fell ill or needed to be isolated. They also worked with SkillSeeder and the Scottish Government to create the Women in Agriculture Practical Training Fund to help more women find and access training wherever they were. This has had a huge impact, helping many women to take on new roles and responsibilities within the sector, overcoming barriers in their own lives or within their businesses. Lantra has found that good communication followed by action has helped them to overcome and help others.
Find out more about the finalists for the Helping it Happen Awards 2023