BAGMA COUNCIL
What goes on behind closed doors? Welcome to BAGMA Council, a body of member representatives, set up to discuss the industry’s most important and pertinent issues. Here we meet the current members of the Council, as they tell us a little about themselves in their own words… SINCE ITS INCEPTION in 1917, BAGMA – as with most trade associations – has had a body of representative members. The BAGMA Council, or Board of BAGMA, represents its members’ interests in all the association’s activities. From the early beginnings, the Council of Representatives was made up of a volunteer group of members with the new members coopted on to positions over the years. Not so long ago BAGMA had representatives in designated regions around the UK. The council was made up from the chairman of each of these areas, representing their respective regional members. Much has changed in the last 15 years or so and the BAGMA Council is now made up from volunteers from member companies. These can be employees of a member, private owners or semi-retired and retired members who still have interests in our industry.
PRESIDENT
Peter Arrand CLAAS Eastern
I think we can all agree that the last 18 months have been very different to what we’ve all be used to, and we’ve had to adapt and change accordingly. I’ve spent 32 years working for one company but have recently found a new home with CLAAS Eastern as the group aftersales manager. I look back over the last 32 years when I was in my final year at school just about to take my GCSEs – the first year the exams were intro-
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duced – and I can remember all I wanted to do was be an agricultural engineer. My father was a farmer, and this is where my interest in the industry began. I can still remember my careers teacher asking, ‘what do you want to do that for?’. How ill-informed he was, for it is an industry full of technology and opportunity. These days I try to share this knowledge and experience whenever I am given the opportunity. My son, who is just starting the year that will end taking his GCSEs is now open to a huge wealth of information to what his next stage will be: information on further education, universities, technical colleges, apprenticeships and now T Levels. Quality careers advice in schools has been neglected for many years but now it is on Ofsted’s agenda; schools will now be judged on this subject and how it is embedded in the curriculum. I am currently a link governor for careers in schools. Schools are really having to get their act together, signposting and developing knowledge about the next stages in young people’s lives, explaining the options and choices which starts many years before the GCSE years. We are a small industry that needs to fight for recognition and make ourselves heard to attract the people we need for tomorrow. I guess I am telling you this as I have had the opportunity to work with colleges, universi-
QUALITY CAREERS ADVICE IN SCHOOLS HAS BEEN NEGLECTED FOR MANY YEARS BUT NOW IT IS ON OFSTED'S AGENDA
Peter Arrand – President
Peter Heming
Peter Arrand
BAGMA BULLETIN NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2021
