Mentoring: A Mechanism for Driving Positive Change in Agriculture

Mentors have been key to my career success since returning to work after maternity leave; they have been critical friends, supporters, sounding boards, and, importantly, not emotionally attached to the outcome of my many decisions. This made me wonder if this is something that is available to everyone and, if it isn't, should it be?

In short, yes, it should be available, and no, it isn’t available to everyone at scale in the UK.

I focused my study on what components are needed to execute an effective mentoring programme that is available to everyone. To do this, I spent time in Canada, Brazil, Scandinavia, and the UK, engaging with people from different sectors and companies to ensure a diverse range of views.

The key insights included:

• Mentoring is a key component of leadership and personal development.
• Cross-sector mentoring breaks down echo chambers and creates new networks.
• Successful programmes share common features such as a clear purpose, advanced matching and ongoing support.
• Mentoring schemes show employees that you are committed to them, and it increases staff retention.
• Dedicated mentoring schemes yield more significant results.

The ingredients of a successful mentoring scheme are demonstrated in the diagram in the recommendations section of this report.

Following my travels, I started a pilot to implement these recommendations; thank you to the Frank Parkinson Agricultural Trust, which kindly funded this. The pilot was a great way to test my recommendations and make tweaks before we rolled out the programme to UK agriculture. The first cohort joined in September 2024, followed by quick sessions with other cohorts across the country. In April 2025, Cultivate Success rebranded as TwoCan Mentor and, at the time of publishing this report, over 150 people had already accessed the programme.

In conclusion, mentoring is a valuable tool in everyone's box, and now it is available to everyone who would like to access it. We are dedicated to living the motto of Nuffield and positively changing UK agriculture.