Transferable skills in land-based and aquaculture sectors: review

6. Conclusions and recommendations

This section outlines the conclusions and recommendations of this review of transferable skills in Scotland’s land-based and aquaculture sectors.

Many of the most transferable skills, most notably verbal communication and IT skills, are also skill gaps and should be key areas for future skills development. Transferable skills in the land-based and aquaculture sectors include non-technical skills like IT proficiency, teamwork, and verbal communication. Awareness should be raised across the sectors about the transferability of people skills. Some technical skills are also transferable, including advanced digital skills and hands-on skills like rough terrain forklift operation. However, workers must be trained on using machinery in new environments or industries.

Future research should clarify the skills workers will need as the sectors adapt to the Just Transition and automation. A better understanding of how seasonal workers can successfully use transferable skills to navigate between multiple jobs would also benefit those working in the sector.

This research addresses Recommendation 12 of the Scottish Government’s Commission for the Land-based Learning Review,^[57] by identifying key transferable skills within the land-based and aquaculture sectors. This has been achieved through an evidence review, content analysis of Lantra’s careers website, and interviews with key stakeholders.

IT skills and people skills like verbal communication and teamwork have consistently emerged as highly transferable across the sectors. Workers rely on these skills in a wide range of daily tasks, whilst strong people skills and IT abilities can also help them transition between roles or achieve promotions. However, the importance of people skills like verbal communication and teamwork may conflict with some traditional perceptions of their relevance in the sectors. This highlights the need to raise awareness among education and training providers, employers, and employees about the transferability of these skills, ensuring workers are supported in recognising and using them. Other key non-technical transferable skills include coordination, the ability to work under pressure, and an awareness of health and safety. However, transferable skills can differ between industries and across job grades. Notably, some highly transferable skills – especially IT proficiency and verbal communication – have been identified as significant skills gaps across the sectors, indicating that these areas are crucial areas for skill development.

Some technical skills are also transferable across industries, including advanced digital skills like drone operation and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), as well as more hands-on skills like tree planting. The operation of some types of machinery, such as 360 excavators and rough terrain forklifts, is also transferable, but workers should be given appropriate training on using machines in new environments or industries. However, many roles within the sectors are highly specialised, making it challenging for some workers to transfer their technical skills. Additional barriers to skill transfer include mindset challenges and limited business capacity for upskilling. The rural nature of many jobs also creates issues like a lack of seasonal accommodation for workers and limited access to local training courses. Despite these challenges, upskilling workers in transferable skills can offer a range of benefits, including new income opportunities and the chance to build social networks across different industries.

This research has also highlighted industries with skill set overlaps. The content analysis identified three clusters of industries with similar skills:

• The Agri-Environment skills cluster includes the horticulture, landscaping, and agriculture industries.
• The Animal and Logistics skills cluster includes the animal care, equine, land-based engineering, and warehousing and logistics industries.
• The Natural Resources and Conservation skills cluster includes the wildlife management, highways, forestry and arboriculture, fisheries management, environmental conservation, and aquaculture industries.

In the future, skills training courses could be aligned between these industries to promote efficiency in skills development.

Notably, the Just Transition is driving new skill overlaps, with roles becoming more hybridised. For example, industries like forestry and agriculture are increasingly demanding similar skills. Additionally, digital and data analysis skills are becoming essential across industries. In the future, cross-industry training programmes focused on transferable skills, such as tree planting or digital data analysis, could be implemented to help workers adapt to automation and the evolving demands of the Just Transition.

6.1. Further recommended research

Two key areas for further research have emerged from this work. First, as highlighted by education providers in the sectors, there is a need for more detailed information about the specific skills that the workforce will require in the future. While there is general agreement that digital and conservation skills will become increasingly important, there is still uncertainty about exactly which skills will be needed and by whom.

Second, although this research has identified that it can challenging for workers to transfer skills across multiple seasonal jobs due to overlapping job timings, interviewees noted that some workers do successfully navigate this. Future research could explore how these workers effectively utilise transferable skills to manage multiple seasonal roles across the sectors.