Developing a Precision Agriculture Workforce Ladder through Secondary, College, and Incumbent Worker Education that Integrates Emerging Technologies and Farm Data

Northeast Community College, Norfolk NE

Investigators

Abstract

With an emphasis on two-year colleges, the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program focuses on the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation's economy. According to projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, technicians are needed to fulfill growing demand in fields that require precision agriculture such as agriculture and food science, environmental science and protection, farm equipment mechanics and service, and land surveying and mapping. Jobs in precision agriculture require a unique combination of technical and agricultural expertise that is not widely available for secondary and college students. The gap between evolving industry need and existing training means that even incumbent workers must seek additional training or education in precision agriculture technologies and practices to acquire jobs and succeed in them. By offering a ladder of enhanced educational experiences to secondary students, two-year college students, and incumbent industry workers, Northeast Community College in Nebraska will educate a wide variety of agriculture workers in line with industry needs as it provides a robust education and training program to support the vital agricultural industry of Nebraska and the United States. A focus of the project is on increasing the number of women and individuals of Hispanic origin in precision agriculture, which will strengthen and diversify an emerging U.S. industry. The deliverables and best practices developed through the project will be disseminated in coordination with ATE Central, at websites reaching agriculture education communities, through regional agriculture and cultural events, and through agriculture education journals and conferences. Due to the highly technical nature of precision agriculture jobs, the agriculture curriculum is often outdated and does not fully prepare students for available positions. Enhancing precision agriculture curriculum for two-year colleges and connecting this curriculum with secondary schools and incumbent worker education will dramatically improve the preparedness of technicians in a number of agricultural sectors. Faculty at Northeast Community College in Nebraska, collaborating with Erudite Ingenuity and consulting with local agriculture industry, will utilize the college's existing precision agriculture curriculum as the foundation for a more technology-enabled, data-driven, and experiential Associates of Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree program. Integration of emerging technologies and longitudinal farm data throughout the precision agriculture A.A.S. program will provide important opportunities for college students to engage in real-world farm scenarios, the processes of gathering and analyzing farm data, and deciding on informed action plans. In addition, after modularizing three core courses of the precision agriculture A.A.S. program, investigators will flexibly adapt the course modules for use in the secondary Intro Ag course and in Northeast's early college precision agriculture course(s) to encourage students to complete high school and seek college-level education. The course modules will also be the foundation of a series of credit-eligible workshops and hybrid courses for incumbent agriculture workers to support their productivity. Local secondary teachers will collaborate with the project team to co-develop and pilot a precision agriculture unit that could be used in the Introduction Ag course offered by all Nebraska agriculture education schools. Local industry representatives will provide input on program and curriculum design as members of Northeast's Precision Agriculture Program advisory committee. The project will support a full-time Precision Agriculture Training Associate that will contribute to the proposed educational activities and will facilitate relationships between Northeast Community College and the high schools and incumbent workforce in its service area. A formative and summative evaluation process will be employed to continuously enhance the project activities and provide opportunities for researching and evaluating the success of the project and deliverables.