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The VTS research project

The VTS research project is being conducted by the Centre for Rural Research at the University of Exeter, in collaboration with Duchy College, Cornwall. Click on the links below to view different aspects of the project.

Aims of the VTS research project

History of the VTS project

Structure of Research Project

Referencing from this website

New to site: Ego-network of Cornish Farm

Aims of the VTS research project

The purposes of the project are fourfold:

· To create a body of distinctive and high quality, peer reviewed papers

· To produce an archive of data about VTS participants.

· Collect data for project evaluation and monitoring of the VTS programme for Duchy College, Cornwall.

· To innovate in questions of methodology and theory.

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History of the VTS research project

The Agricultural Department at Duchy College, Cornwall has been strengthening its links with the Agricultural Industry and increasing its contact with practicing farmers through technology transfer events and meetings.

Through the Vocational Training Scheme and Objective 1 project, the college is seeking to spend more time training farmers, growers and rural businesses throughout Cornwall. The training is run in various formats including, seminars, conferences and group workshops with the availability of wage subsidy and locum services to aid farmer access.

The role of the Centre for Rural Research is to measure the impact of the VTS programme on Cornish farmers. Also, the project will produce useful tools for future analysis.

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Structure of the VTS research project

The structure of the research programme is broken down into five different streams. Whilst representing a distinct area of study there are considerable synergies between each one, representing opportunities for integration towards the end of the programme. The target outputs from each stream will be a multi-authored academic paper, although there is scope for other papers to be written and further research to be undertaken. Click on the links below for more detail about each stream of research.

Stream 1 – Continual data collection

Stream 2 – Enrolment data

Stream 3 – Social Network Data

Stream 4 – Key people interviews

Stream 5 - Ethnographic study of VTS groups

Stream 1 – Continual data collection

This stream will provide the basic data about the enterprises involved with the VTS participants and seek to record any changes in either the structure of the circumstances of these businesses. This is baseline socio-economic data about participants and their businesses.

Stream 2 – Enrolment data

By extracting the post-code data, it is possible to assess the patterns of uptake of the various courses offered, the location of participants and those who take more than one course. This represents a low cost research option, in terms of data collection and obtrusiveness. Click here for details of maps.

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Stream 3 – Social Network Data

This stream aims to record the networks of participants. Collected through a short face-to-face questionnaire the process aims to collect the data in two groups, one year apart. The first sample will be larger to compensate for anticipated higher level of non-participation on the second sample. Click here for details of social network maps.

Stream 4 – Key people interviews

It is anticipated that the interviews and data from stream 3 will identify a small but important group of people who play central roles in the networks of those taking part in VTS. Through the offices of Duchy these people will be contacted and an interview sought about their role in the land based industries or the wider community.

Stream 5 - Ethnographic study of VTS groups

This last stream is the optional extra of the whole package the observations from which could provide qualitative data, which will support the other research streams. It is however relatively expensive in terms of resources and will be only deployed when and if the other research streams are fully operational.

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Referencing

All of the work on this site belongs to the team members. Please contact the research team about referencing the work. For problems or questions regarding this website contact allan.j.butler@exeter.ac.uk

Last revised: 24/07/2004