Kingston University students boost Future Skills experience in Waitrose farm visit

Kingston University students have taken their Future Skills learning out of the classroom and into the fields of Leckford Estate, the Waitrose & Partners farm in Hampshire.

The visit took place as part of the University’s largest live brief of its kind, developed in collaboration with the John Lewis Partnership – with more than 600 undergraduate students tasked with coming up with creative business solutions for the leading retail brand.

Second year students completing the Explore phase of the University’s sector-leading Future Skills programme have been developing the essential life skills they will need for career success by working on the John Lewis Partnership brief. Different elements of the project have been addressed by students from across two Faculties – the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and the Environment, and the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences.

During the past few months, groups of students from a range of courses have been taking part in field trips to the leading retailer's nationwide supermarket chain, Waitrose & Partners. This included geography, geology and environmental science students, who were tasked with developing approaches to better understand and respond to shifts in soil health, crop cycles and weather patterns as part of their response to the brief.

Following their experience at the Leckford Estate, where students were given a tour around the site and briefed by general manager Andrew Ferguson, environmental science with hazards and disasters student Ophelia Bevilacqua said the Future Skills programme had already had a major impact on her confidence and approach to learning. “Instead of being in a classroom, we’re out on the farm speaking to people who do this as a job – we’re completely in their world,” she said. “Future Skills has taught me how important critical thinking is – it’s helped me understand some of the challenges facing industry and given me the confidence to communicate with professionals in the field.” 

Darcey Mervin, an environmental science integrated degree apprenticeship student, said the visit had deepened her understanding of environmental shifts and how they relate to farming practices. “Being able to go out and see things first-hand makes such a difference. Not only because you’re applying knowledge gained from your course, it’s also really inspiring and provokes questions you wouldn’t think to ask if you hadn’t attended a site. Engaging with the staff here has made me think more critically about climate change and how it impacts agriculture.”

Through these visits, students have been able to experience sustainable farming practices in action and put their questions directly to the experts managing the farm to inform their responses to the project. Following the visit, students presented their findings to representatives from the John Lewis Partnership as part of a simulated assessment centre at Twickenham Stoop, which forms part of the Explore phase of the programme.

The collaboration with the University was supporting John Lewis Partnership to gain a valuable insight from students’ fresh perspective on the challenges facing modern farming, Leckford Estate general manager Andrew Ferguson said. “The skills required in agriculture are rapidly changing – for example, data skills are now much more important. Understanding how we integrate with nature in farming and food production, how we use data and technology to work more sustainably – these are the Future Skills we need. For students to come here, see the processes in action and ask questions directly, it sparks creativity and critical thinking in ways that cannot happen in a lecture theatre.”

The farm visits provided students with invaluable opportunity to recognise and reflect on the Future Skills graduate attributes they had been developing, Dr Stuart Downward, associate professor in the Department of Geography, Geology and the Environment and School Director for Learning and Teaching, said. “Our relationship with the John Lewis Partnership is a fantastic example of how Future Skills comes to life for our students. This live brief has challenged them to apply both their subject knowledge and professional competencies in an industry context – from using AI to support the development of their project, to combining geographical and environmental skills with teamwork, communication, and project management techniques essential for their future careers.”

Equipping students with the skills most needed by industry

The live brief and associated farm visit exemplify the University’s commitment to equipping students with the essential life skills they need to thrive in the workplace. The University’s Future Skills programme is informed by research conducted in conjunction with YouGov, which has surveyed a range of leading businesses, including the John Lewis Partnership, on the skills they most value in graduates.

By the time they complete the programme, students will have acquired nine key Future Skills graduate attributes, including creative problem solving, digital competency, adaptability, being enterprising, having a questioning mindset, empathy, collaboration, resilience and self-awareness.

All second-year undergraduates at the University are now completing the Explore phase of Future Skills, following its roll-out at the start of the current academic year. The second stage of the three-year programme sees students explicitly assessed on their development of the graduate attributes within a module on their course, alongside their subject-specific learning.

• Find out more about how Kingston University is leading the way with Future Skills in the United Kingdom.