Creating the Future Workforce in Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Proceedings of a Workshop (2021) / Chapter Skim
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4 Key Working Group Observations and Ideas
4 Key Working Group Observations and Ideas
Pages 9-24
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Assessing Talent Supply and Demand Wendy Fink of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities reported on the suggestions from the first group, which focused on opportunities to more clearly and accurately assess the supply and demand for FANR labor and talent. Cross-Cutting Steps The U.S.
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Increase outreach efforts to raise the visibility of available FANR jobs data and findings. Fink also reported the suggestion that metrics be designed around three stakeholder types: the employee (the graduate)
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The first explored ways to raise the profile of FANR fields and increase awareness of the many job and career opportunities available. The other two groups addressed specific considerations for industry and academia.
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Engage postsecondary institutions; organizations such as Teach For America, UTeach STEM, and Ag in the Classroom; and other stakehold ers in advocating for the inclusion of food and agriculture in STEM cur ricula and experiential learning for middle and high schools. For exam ple, teachers can use food and agriculture examples as a vehicle to bring STEM and financial literacy concepts alive.
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Recruitment and Retention in the FANR Industry The industry recruitment and retention discussion group, led by Quentin Tyler of the University of Kentucky and Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences, explored some of the key challenges to recruiting and retaining FANR workers in the industry, along with opportunities and ongoing efforts to address those challenges. The group members considered awareness of industry jobs (relevant mainly to recruitment)
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Industry stakeholders are engaged in numerous ongoing efforts to address these issues. Examples include outreach activities such as career fairs, speaking engagements, tours, and field visits, as well as scholarships, internships, and experiential learning opportunities, often created in partnership with universities.
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Companies could address these challenges by recognizing and meeting the needs of a multi-generation workforce; providing resources consistent with best practices for creating formal, individual development plans; sharing success stories and testimonials; supporting formal and informal mentoring programs; and supporting continuing education for employees to advance in various FANR career tracks. Ideas from individuals in the industry group to address the issues discussed above included the following: Engage FANR stakeholders to develop a comprehensive approach to re cruiting and retaining talent.
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Tiffany Carter, a graduate student from Kansas State University at the time of the workshop, reported that the discussion group explored holistic approaches to attracting and retaining high-quality individuals in academia, including the following: Intentionally tailor recruitment efforts to target different groups, such as urban youth or college students in fields outside of traditional FANR disciplines. Offer campus immersion opportunities for K–12 teachers to create sup port systems for engaging students.
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, while the fifth addressed experiential learning opportunities such as co-curricular activities and internships. Pre-College and Community/Technical College Education Tiffany Heng-Moss of the University of Nebraska and Jay Lee of Northeastern Junior College led a discussion on the need to support purposeful career exploration of opportunities in FANR and to help students identify career goals and an accompanying plan of study from secondary to postsecondary education.
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o FANR could be integrated into the general education programs at 2- and 4-year institutions and pre-service methods courses. o Teachers in K–12 and community/technical colleges could benefit from research experiences and experiential learning focused on the science process and agriculture, perhaps with funding support from NIFA.
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The group stressed that the full spectrum of FANR stakeholders could be more involved in efforts to address soft skills gaps, including students and families, teachers and faculty, administrators, government, industry, nongovernmental organizations, and professional organizations.4 Drew Ratterman, formerly of Dow AgroSciences, summarized suggestions from group members for actions: Rebrand "soft skills" to better convey the nature of these skills and im prove buy-in among students and academic services. Potential alterna tive terms include "life skills," "professional skills," and "interpersonal skills." Establish best practices for soft skills development and evaluation.
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It would also be useful to track the amount and sources of funding for consistent efforts, faculty training in this area, and awareness of soft skills development needs and opportunities among key groups. Experiential Learning Jay Ackridge of Purdue University led a group discussion of opportunities to enhance student engagement in FANR through experiential learning approaches.
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Emerging technology offers opportunities to integrate and blend classroom, experiential, and online experiences to reach a broader array of audiences and learning styles. In the informal sphere, social media, games, podcasts, and entertainment can break down stereotypes and increase awareness.
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The report of the Massachusetts Institutes of Technology's (MIT's) Online Education Policy Initiative5 describes opportunities from online learning that include "customization of learning, remote collaboration, just-in-time scenarios, continuous assessment and blended learning." Defined as a "digital scaffold," online learning makes feasible various learning approaches and increased use of digital media such as video, spaced learning, self-paced learning, and game-based learning, to note a few examples.
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These models can help address FANR workforce development challenges by helping the community define FANR jobs, trends, and skill requirements; work to address common misperceptions; and create opportunities for experiential and lifelong learning. They can also reveal insights into the cultural differences among disciplines, sectors, and prospective workers and help various stakeholders identify their roles and responsibilities.
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grants from the National Institutes of Health might be further leveraged. Take advantage of communications mechanisms such as social media to increase awareness and engagement in these efforts.
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