Agriculture adds nearly 60,000 jobs but students not interested
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Just 3 percent can identify it as one of the best fields for college graduates.
The Monsanto Fund supports the America’s Farmers Grow Ag Leaders program, which will award more than $500,000 dollars in scholarships
Fewer than one in five (19 percent) surveyed indicated that they understood the broad array of career opportunities in agriculture. In fact, the agriculture space is experiencing job growth.
According to the USDA, 57,900 high-skilled jobs are created annually in food, agriculture, renewable natural resources and environmental fields in the United States.
The survey identified several misconceptions that contributed to the findings. For example, only 35 percent of high school and college students believed careers in agriculture were technology-driven.
Erickson Research collected data from a total of 1,000 respondents and analyzed the results. When asked to share their interest in working in various industries, 45 percent of respondents were “extremely or very interested†in a career in technology, followed by 40 percent exhibiting the same level interest for a career in arts/entertainment, 35 percent for a career in healthcare, and just 13 percent for a career in agriculture.
To raise awareness of the job prospects in agriculture, the Monsanto Fund supports the America’s Farmers Grow Ag Leaders program, which will award more than $500,000 dollars in scholarships to students across the country in 2017.
The scholarships are open to students in eligible counties who are looking to enroll or are enrolled in trade schools, community colleges and four-year universities. Scholarships are awarded in $1,500 increments to students pursuing an education in an ag-related field of study. Fields include: farming, agronomy, education, science, technology, engineering, business, communications, among many others.
Since the program began in 2014, the America’s Farmers Ag Leaders program has awarded nearly $1.2 million in scholarships to promising students pursuing their education in agriculture. ■