Abstract :
Better-educated farmers are known to make greater use of information, advice and training, to participate more in government schemes and to be more proactive in adjusting to change and planning for the future of the business. Such traits are in greater demand as the pace of change accelerates. Yet there is no single authoritative source of information on the educational attainment levels of UK farmers and no benchmark against which to monitor trends. This literature review attempts to integrate evidence from all available sources. The consensus emerging from a number of recent studies seems to be that at least one-third and possibly half of all UK farmers today have pursued courses of further or higher education and obtained qualifications, largely in agriculture or related subjects. About 4–6% have degrees, a similar number have HNDs and between a quarter and a third have FE qualifications from full-time or part-time study. The proportion qualified has risen steeply since the Second World War but still compares unfavourably with managers of other small businesses. Higher levels of educational attainment are associated with large farms and the arable east, with employers, female or pluriactive farmers and with farm managers. Although these relationships tend to be dismissed as ‘age effects’ or ‘size effects’, it is suggested that education may be exerting an independent influence on farmer behaviour.
