Students’ awards prove themselves an Asset

Four students from the UK's top agricultural universities have won themselves the opportunity to land a job with the country's largest independent agronomy group – and a scholarship to see them through their final year.

The four second-year students were finalists in the inaugural year of an innovative new scheme from The Arable Group (TAG), designed to attract fresh new talent into the arable sector. Known as ASSET, the programme was launched last year, with assistance from sponsor Vaderstad and the Ernest Cook Trust, and culminated last week in an awards dinner at the Royal Show in Warwickshire.

"When we launched ASSET in 2007, the aim was to find the cream of the students from each of the four universities – Reading, Newcastle, Nottingham and Harper Adams – and to try to retain them within the industry," explained Colin MacEwan, TAG's chief executive.

"Agriculture's not always seen as a logical career option, even for those with an agricultural background; with ASSET we set out to demonstrate some of the exciting challenges faced by the industry and how there's so much more to the arable industry than 'farming'.

"New talent and fresh thinking was the inspiration for ASSET – and the four finalists have those attributes in bucketloads. Needless to say, we'll be following their progress closely over the next 12 months – I think the selectors will have their work cut out when it comes to making the final choice next year," he said.

The four winners are: Victoria Gallichan, from Harper Adams; Ben Hadingham, from Newcastle University; Alec Smith, from Nottingham University; and Jon Dearsley, from Reading University. They were awarded with their prizes by Mark Spenser, Honorary Royal Show director.

Mike Gooding, head of the School of Agriculture Policy and Development at Reading University, was positive about the value of the ASSET programme: "We're always keen to find opportunities that give our students exposure to commercial life. The ASSET programme has certainly got them thinking about the economic relevance of their studies.

"TAG already has an input into the course here at Reading, but we're delighted to be a partner in developing this exciting new career development programme."

The ASSET programme will re-open to second year students studying at the four participating universities in September.