Course summary

The rapidly evolving Agricultural Technology industry requires Technicians capable of identifying and maintaining increasingly complex sensor systems that generate the data flows through the farm and ensuring these data flows are consistent, accurate and reliable. The data driven industry will improve the efficiency of the agricultural industry by improving the precision of every part of the farming process. The result of this improved efficiency will be producing more with less, applying inputs precisely, when and where needed to precisely meet the requirements of the crop or animal. The consequence of this improved efficiency will be improved profitability, a reduced carbon footprint and more output per unit of input. The technical skills required for these are in short supply. The Higher National Certificate in Agricultural technology will equip the graduate to maintain these complex systems through an in depth knowledge of the sensors, how the data are generated, how the data are moved and how this data informs for example, a milking robot, (or a field robot), to carry out a task and is designed to train graduates to a higher technician level where they are able to recognise, diagnose and maintain the precision farming systems, robotics and mechatronics systems that are becoming an increasing part of modern agricultural mechanisation. A graduate with this qualification will be able to manage a number of these farm data systems and help the farm managers tailor data generation to suit the farms requirements.