Confusion surrounds education and qualifications. Many employers, especially in the rural sector, don't know what to look for. Pat Crawford says this needs sorting out.

Douglas Jackson, who heads up AG Advisory, the rural business specialists, is worried about the way school farms are being squeezed by cuts.

His own interest in agriculture began when he worked on the farm attached to Oathall Community College.

He is adamant about the value of school farms and Young Farmers’ clubs: “They do a marvellous job introducing and developing young people’s interest in what are destined to become the most important industries of all.

“To stand a real chance of providing food security for the vast increase in global population that is predicted, agriculture and horticulture must attract high-calibre new entrants.”

Charles Tassell, former Kent NFU chairman, echoes these sentiments: “Food production, in all its many forms – and the associated service industries – offer attractive, challenging and progressive career options, something of which we need young people and their parents and teachers to be aware.

“Reducing the numbers and scope of farm schools is a seriously retrograde step at a time when the contributions they make are increasingly important.”

Michael Gove’s U-turn over the introduction of an English Baccalaureate is seen by some as demonstrating ability to listen, and by others as a debacle indicative of wider problems in our education system. Confusion seems to rule the day.

Qualifications are fundamental to the job market ladder but a lot of employers are confused by their diversity and scope. In some cases, even their worth is challenged.

Mr Jackson says rural industries suffer from fogginess surrounding qualifications, views echoed by Mark Lumsdon-Taylor, director of finance at Hadlow, who argues that graduate programmes, apprenticeships and other forms of training must fulfil employers’ current and emerging needs.

“There are progressive opportunities for the academic and for those who excel in practical application.”

Mr Jackson points out that apprentices who complete programmes tailored to employer need are virtually assured progressive jobs.

Another anachronism that affects the rural sector relates to the government’s decision to remove, or downgrade, many vocational qualifications that could be taken alongside, or instead of, GCSEs.

Mr Jackson says the decision seems to have been based on the assumption that most vocational courses are “only for fun” whereas “many afforded excellent routes for young people intent on forging careers in crucially important land-based subjects such as agriculture and horticulture.”