Preparing the Agricultural Workforce in Southwest Ohio

Sinclair Community College, Dayton OH

Investigators

Abstract

Agriculture is the number one industry in the state of Ohio, contributing $107 billion a year to the state economy. As the population of farmers ages and a larger proportion of farmers switch to farming part-time, agriculture has emerged as the one of the top industries aiming to increase the skilled workforce in the Miami Valley region. Over its 3-year duration, the Preparing the Agricultural Workforce in Southwest Ohio project will expand and enhance Sinclair Community College’s Agricultural Sciences (AGR) degree program to build capacity and provide agricultural training that meets the workforce needs of both urban and rural communities. To accomplish this, Sinclair Community College will offer five additional program tracks within the agricultural sciences program and create learning environments that are conducive to hands-on and experiential learning. Extensive outreach efforts to K-12 students, teachers, formally incarcerated individuals and incumbent workers will expand pathways aimed at training the next generation of the agricultural workforce in the region. In alignment with the mission of the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program, these new resources will supplement existing high-quality training offered at Sinclair to enrich student interest and skills in agriculture technology and enhance career pathways for incumbent workers. This work seeks to diversify the agricultural workforce and address larger societal challenges such as urban food deserts and helping formerly incarcerated individuals obtain stable and well-paying employment. The overall project goal will be to increase capacity of educational providers to meet agricultural workforce demands in Southwest Ohio. Five new short-term agriculture certificate tracks embedded within the associate degree program will be developed and implemented to support this goal. The five new certificate tracks (Greenhouse Management, Urban Agriculture, Agronomy, Large Animal Care & Husbandry, and Food Science) create a stackable credential model that will provide incremental preparation steps for students and adults with entry-level backgrounds in these areas. This model will also provide connections to entry-level jobs, pathways to further education, short-term solutions for those needing to earn a credential to enter the job market quickly, and ultimately lead to economic stability and mobility. To grow and diversify the future agricultural workforce in the region, the project team will create pathways and conduct outreach activities that target K-12 students and teachers, formerly incarcerated individuals, and incumbent workers. It is expected that project outcomes will lead to increased access to high quality educational programming and hands-on training to prepare students for in-demand occupations across the state. Ultimately, this project will improve student learning and increase Sinclair’s capacity to meet regional workforce needs. The community of educators in agriculture education, along with the broader technician education community, will receive implementation information on the curriculum created. The broad reach of the dissemination plan will allow for replication and adaptation at other colleges and K-12 dual-enrollment institutions across the country seeking to enhance agricultural science pathways. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the Nation's economy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.