What skills does the Agriculture industry need from its employees?
What skills does the Agriculture industry need from its employees?
In short: more science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the agriculture industry will need nearly 60,000 college graduates to fill new roles by 2020—and only 61% of those jobs will be filled. That’s a lot of missed opportunity for U.S. agriculture if we can’t fill those spots.
So is UTM doing a good job preparing our students to work in this high-tech field?
Agriculture is expected to produce more food from fewer farmers, land and chemicals. Perhaps agriculture has a more difficult task than most industries, given that the burden of feeding the nation rests on the shoulders of such a small group of workers. There are only 960,000 full-time farmers – half the prison population in the United States.
Precision agriculture, the use of technology on the farm, is being utilized to keep up with the challenge.
Dr. Todd Winters, dean of the UTM College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, shared with me the importance of precision agriculture literacy and how the college is teaching Geographic Information Systems (GIS), or the science of measuring and analyzing spaces.
“GIS is a really hot area. A lot of jobs require geographic information which we can do,” Winters said.
UTM offers an entire GIS certification program for students to take to prepare themselves for the industry. The program gives students hands on experience with state of the art technology like drones to look at erosion, or infrared sensors to study nutrients in the soil.
But is this program preparing students to work on the job?
Stetson Hays, UTM 2019 graduate of Agriculture Engineering, believes he is well prepared to enter the industry. “The program prepared me well to enter the industry and I think I could get a job anywhere with my degree,” Hays said.
However, Hays did mention the need for updates in the GIS lab where the computers were sluggish when running the GIS software and encouraged students in the program to take advantage of every internship they can get.
According to Winters, the school is fundraising for the Innovation and Product Realization Faculty, also known as The Garage.
Students at UTM, the Tennessee College of Applied Technology and even members of the community can work to develop their own products and test them.
They hope this facility, which is intended to be located behind the Recreation Center, can be one more resource for agriculture students as they prepare to work on their own farms and develop their skills for the 21st century.
In short: more science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the agriculture industry will need nearly 60,000 college graduates to fill new roles by 2020—and only 61% of those jobs will be filled. That’s a lot of missed opportunity for U.S. agriculture if we can’t fill those spots.
So is UTM doing a good job preparing our students to work in this high-tech field?
Agriculture is expected to produce more food from fewer farmers, land and chemicals. Perhaps agriculture has a more difficult task than most industries, given that the burden of feeding the nation rests on the shoulders of such a small group of workers. There are only 960,000 full-time farmers – half the prison population in the United States.
Precision agriculture, the use of technology on the farm, is being utilized to keep up with the challenge. Todd Winters, dean of the UTM College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, shared with me the importance of precision agriculture literacy and how the college is teaching Geographic Information Systems (GIS), or the science of measuring and analyzing spaces.
“GIS is a really hot area. A lot of jobs require geographic information which we can do,” Winters said.
UTM offers an entire GIS certification program for students to take to prepare themselves for the industry. The program gives students hands on experience with state of the art technology like drones to look at erosion, or infrared sensors to study nutrients in the soil.
But is this program preparing students to work on the job?
Stetson Hays, UTM 2019 graduate of Agriculture Engineering, believes he is well prepared to enter the industry. “The program prepared me well to enter the industry and I think I could get a job anywhere with my degree,” Hays said.
However, Hays did mention the need for updates in the GIS lab where the computers were sluggish when running the GIS software and encouraged students in the program to take advantage of every internship they can get.
According to Winters, the school is fundraising for the Innovation and Product Realization Faculty, also known as The Garage. Students at UTM, the Tennessee College of Applied Technology and even members of the community can work to develop their own products and test them. They hope this facility, which is intended to be located behind the Recreation Center, can be one more resource for agriculture students prepare to work on their own farms and develop their skills for the 21st century.
Photo Credit / University Relations
