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Wisconsin’s Agriculture Education and Workforce Development Council gets reboot

Wisconsin’s workforce and agriculture departments have brought back a group designed to help improve opportunities for careers in agriculture.  Wednesday was the first meeting of the new Agriculture Education and Workforce Development Council, which started with introductions and ended with discussions about how to reach young people about ag careers.

Paul Palmby with Seneca Foods says one challenge is getting students aware of the opportunities and getting them interested. “Often, the burden falls on the employer to reach out to the schools and come in and perhaps then have an opportunity to present in front of a classroom or something like that. What we’ve found is that’s a very, almost random approach.”

Educator Gwen Boetcher from DeForest coordinates youth apprenticeships with employers and says many ag companies require apprentices to be 18-years old, which is a disadvantage for agriculture. “I will say the medical field is kicking our butt. They are doing a really good job of recruiting kids. They’re doing a really great job of getting kids in real-life experiences starting as juniors.”

Rusk County Conservationist Nick Stadnyk would like to break the divide between natural resource management and agriculture, as they are closely related. “Nowadays, it’s so important to talk about nutrient management. It’s important to talk about soil health, and those are resource management fields.”

Superintendent Jeff Eide from the Blair-Taylor school district says Wisconsin also needs more young people to become educators. “We’ve just got to keep growing those teachers also, because in the end, if we don’t have the teachers, we’re not going to have the workforce.”

The new Agriculture Education and Workforce Development Council is a joint project by the Department of Workforce Development and the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection.  The council’s objective is to increase hiring and retention in ag, food, and natural resource fields, work with educational systems on training, and to recommend policies and other changes to promote ag careers.

Full disclosure:  The author of this article, Brownfield’s Larry Lee, has also been appointed to serve as the media member of the council, and will be participating in future discussions.