Shropshire Farming Talk: Workshops return to help tackle challenges in pig industry
After a four-year break, I'm pleased to say that AHDB will once again be offering a programme of advanced workshops for pig workers to address the growing challenges and responsibilities in the pork industry.
The Stockperson Plus syllabus has been redesigned to cover topics such as water management, managing casualty pigs and assurance schemes for the first time.
All learning has been moved online which we hope will make it more accessible to many.
The redeveloped programme will help cement our role as the leading organisation of training like this and I feel is a natural follow on from the Stockperson Development Scheme (SDS) to further develop the technical skills of pig unit staff.
The newer advanced technical sessions are aimed at stockpeople who have a good understanding already and/or have completed the SDS and want to progress to become a supervisor or manager, or just get a deeper understanding of a particular production area they are currently working in.
As Knowledge Exchange Relationship Manager for the East, I’m thrilled we’ve brought the scheme back because of how quickly many workers in the industry are finding themselves faced with greater responsibilities.
Having spoken to stockpeople and their managers, we’ve included a few new topics along with options for indoor and outdoor units.
We used to offer face-to-face sessions but have taken some of the learnings from how we had to adapt during Covid and decided to offer the course completely online.
That way, it fits in to the workloads of those we’re aiming to attract from within pig husbandry and will allow more to attend.
The training sessions will begin in late October 2023 and run until March 2024.
Andrew Palmer, Knowledge Exchange Relationship Manager (East) – Pork
