A new National Academies report encourages agriculture leaders to look more to community colleges to help fill shortages in the workforce.
The report recommends ways higher education institutions can improve the learning experiences for students in agriculture, environmental and life sciences and related disciplines.
Many students don’t understand how expansive the agriculture industry is and don’t pursue careers in it, according to a report from the academies, a highly-regarded scientific scholar organization. Leaders in the field and educators should do a better job explaining the variety of backgrounds needed to serve the industry, from scientific engineering to business marketing, and international law to transportation logistics. They must also cater more to nontraditional students, it said.
“The pool of potential candidates for agricultural disciplines is no longer the relatively homogenous group of young people who grew up on farms,” the report said. “That number is diminishing, while the student population has grown increasingly diverse in terms of age, background and culture.”
The report noted that community colleges traditionally cater to such students and would be logical partners for four-year institutions.
“Institutions may wish to develop multi-institution programs, share resources, allow easy exchange of faculty and students and generally work together to support and promote initiatives of common interest,” it said.
The report highlighted a few existing partnerships between agriculture programs at four-year and two-year institutions. It noted an articulation agreement between Ohio State University and Columbus State Community College (Ohio) to address the shortage and diversity of business-education teachers in the state. An articulation plan for teacher education between Texas A&M University-Commerce and two-year Collin College was also featured. Partnerships with Iowa and California community colleges were also cited.