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Job gap creates opportunity for ag colleges

The dean of a College of Agriculture says universities can use a recent study from the USDA as an opportunity to recruit more agriculture students.

The survey shows more than 20,000 jobs in the agriculture industry go unfilled by the ag students each year and Purdue University’s Jay Akridge says companies will look outside of the agriculture sector. “We have an opportunity, I think, if we can do a better job of attracting students into the ag programs to be the place that those companies find that talent,” he says.  “As opposed to going to more general degrees to get it.”

He tells Brownfield at the end of the day companies will fill those jobs.  “But they’ll hire a business major instead of an ag business major or a biologist or a plant scientist,” he says.  “But certainly it gives ag schools an opportunity to try and do a better job of filling that pipeline with individuals that know something about the industry going in.”

Akridge says 4-H and FFA programs in both rural and urban communities are also helping to increase students’ exposure to careers in agriculture.

AUDIO: Jay Akridge, Purdue University Dean of Agriculture