Posted on Jun 13, 2022
Agriculture companies have lots of job openings in STEM fields, far from the farm
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Agriculture companies are looking for people who are interested in science, and hiring managers are increasingly looking for people who don’t have traditional ag backgrounds.
Jobs in agriculture don’t just take place on the farm.
Across the Midwest, plant science and ag companies are looking for scientists and others in STEM to fill positions in labs, or in front of computers, that may not fit the traditional image of agriculture.
“When people meet folks that work in the ag industry, they're often shocked about what they actually do for a living,” said Kim Kidwell, the associate chancellor of Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a former dean of the School of Agriculture. “There's a lot of engineering, there's a lot of business, there's a lot of computer science.”
Jobs in agriculture don’t just take place on the farm.
Across the Midwest, plant science and ag companies are looking for scientists and others in STEM to fill positions in labs, or in front of computers, that may not fit the traditional image of agriculture.
“When people meet folks that work in the ag industry, they're often shocked about what they actually do for a living,” said Kim Kidwell, the associate chancellor of Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a former dean of the School of Agriculture. “There's a lot of engineering, there's a lot of business, there's a lot of computer science.”
Agriculture companies have lots of job openings in STEM fields, far from the farm
Posted from kcur.org
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Posted 2 y ago
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Many years ago I went through the Leadership Grand Forks program. We got to visit many of the agriculture related businesses in Eastern North Dakota. Even then most companies were looking for employees with skills far beyond what one thinks of as traditional agriculture.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."There is a huge workforce demand right now, Boedeker said. These two-year students that are doing their internships, about a third of the time those students get offered full time or permanent part time employment with those internship sponsors.
The types of positions Boedeker is training students for, like agriculture and food science technician roles, are still a much smaller group compared to farm workers, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, those science jobs are projected to grow much faster in the coming years than traditional farm worker jobs.
Boedekers students complete internships as part of their coursework, often with some of the many plant science startups and big companies that operate in the area.
NewLeaf Symbiotics is one company that regularly hires the interns through the community college program. The biotechnology startup is conveniently located in the same building where classes take place.
The company makes what Natalie Breakfield, vice president for research and discovery, describes as basically a probiotic for a plant."
..."There is a huge workforce demand right now, Boedeker said. These two-year students that are doing their internships, about a third of the time those students get offered full time or permanent part time employment with those internship sponsors.
The types of positions Boedeker is training students for, like agriculture and food science technician roles, are still a much smaller group compared to farm workers, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, those science jobs are projected to grow much faster in the coming years than traditional farm worker jobs.
Boedekers students complete internships as part of their coursework, often with some of the many plant science startups and big companies that operate in the area.
NewLeaf Symbiotics is one company that regularly hires the interns through the community college program. The biotechnology startup is conveniently located in the same building where classes take place.
The company makes what Natalie Breakfield, vice president for research and discovery, describes as basically a probiotic for a plant."
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