Overview
NICRE worked with the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences (SNES) and Lifelong Learning at Newcastle University to better understand the skills needs of rural businesses.
Building on the current work being undertaken by the Department of Education nationally looking at the skills needs of businesses, NICRE focused on the specific needs and challenges firms in rural areas face in accessing skills training.
This work included businesses from all sectors located in rural areas and those which have rural firms as their target market, such as land agents, vets, rural consultants etc.
Our cross-university team undertook research with these businesses to identify their present and future skills needs. This involved a combination of around 60 qualitative interviews and roundtables, alongside data from the NICRE business surveys 2021 and 2023.
Findings from this project will be published in due course.