Creating the Future Workforce in Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources: Proceedings of a Workshop (2021)
Chapter: 2 Introduction
2
Introduction
Norman Scott, professor emeritus at Cornell University and Chair of the workshop planning committee, introduced the workshop by summarizing the impetus for the event and outlining key objectives for participants. He asked the attendees to:
- Explore the evolving nature of jobs in food, agriculture, and natural resources (FANR) in the public and private sectors, and the different educational and skill requirements of those jobs.
- Discuss the implications of differences in the backgrounds, experience, and expectations of the targeted pool of candidates relative to those of past candidates.
- Examine innovations in university programming, curricula, internships, and experiential learning designed to develop leadership and soft skills.
- Examine the roles of different stakeholders, including the diverse educational institutions in recruiting and preparing workforce candidates and public and private employers in building educational partnerships.
- Examine potential collaborative efforts for raising the profile of jobs.
- Identify strategies to target, recruit, and retain talented persons to the science and engineering fields of FANR.
FANR workforce challenges are driven by many factors, including a wave of retirements, shifts in the nature of the work, and the increasing need to work at the international interface because of globalization. Scott pointed to three primary data sources for insights into the supply of and demand for job candidates in relevant fields:
- The Agricultural Science Workforce Census.1 This survey of 18 large agribusiness companies regarding their need for new talent revealed that companies anticipated a need to increase their scientific workforce and a challenge in finding qualified applicants.
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1 See https://www.apsnet.org/careers/Documents/CSAWCensusExecSummary2014.pdf. Accessed March 24, 2020.
- Employment Opportunities for College Graduates in Food, Agriculture, Renewable Natural Resources, and the Environment, United States, 2015–2020.2 This Purdue University study estimated that new U.S. graduates in FANR filled only 61 percent of the expected 57,900 average annual openings in FANR fields between 2015 and 2020, based on the number of individuals in the education pipeline. The study suggested that employers would likely recruit graduates from other fields, such as business administration, engineering, and consumer sciences to fill the 39 percent balance of openings.
- The Food and Agriculture Education Information System.3 This database, supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) National Institute of Food and Agriculture, compiles information about student enrollment, degrees awarded, faculty salaries, and other higher education data for relevant fields.
Scott asked participants to explore a strategy for engaging and preparing the future FANR workforce for jobs in academia, government, and industry. Attracting and developing this workforce is a shared responsibility of employers, educators, and many other stakeholders, Scott said. Success will require partnerships among businesses, local school districts, professional societies, and other organizations to help students graduate from high school, earn degrees, and participate in continuing education, he added. Scott then urged workshop participants to consider how these partnerships could happen, with emphasis on possible actions for the community and clarity on the roles of each stakeholder group.
The workshop began with a keynote address and a series of presentations from government, industry, and academic perspectives (see Appendix A, Workshop Agenda). Following this stage setting, participants spent the bulk of the workshop engaged in working groups organized by topic (see Appendix B, Working Group Participants).
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2 See https://www.purdue.edu/usda/employment. Accessed March 24, 2020.
3 See https://faeis.cals.vt.edu. Accessed March 24, 2020.
