AgCareers.com and AgrowKnowledge Form “Fitting” Partnership
August 24, 2008
Cynthia Hoffman
AgCareers.com and AgrowKnowledge are working together to connect technical trained professionals with employers to meet the needs of the agriculture industry.
AgrowKnowledge is the national center for agriscience and technology education with the goal of preparing students to use emerging technology in the agriculture, food, and natural resources industries. Since AgCareers.com is the leading online job board and human resource service provider for those same industries, it seems the partnership is a natural fit.
“Many companies are finding that an increasing amount of positions within their company require a two year degree or technical training,” said Eric Spell, president of AgCareers.com. “In the last 10 to 15 years, recruiting efforts were not as focused on this demographic. This has resulted in a lack of employees for these positions and a greater difficulty in attracting students to this educational field. Our partnership with AgroKnowledge will be proactive in addressing this issue.”
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 80 percent of the new jobs created between 2002 and 2012 will require an Associate’s degree, applied technology training, or college experience other than a bachelor’s degree.
This statistic is concerning because many students aren’t aware of the various technological positions available in the agriculture industry, said AgrowKnowledge Director Rick Parker. He said the partnership with AgCareers.com will help increase awareness and benefit both the students and employers.
“The partnership will help us identify real-life positions that our students can enter after leaving our educational programs and we can train them for those opportunities,” Parker said. “By working together, we can provide better prepared students for the new technical careers in agriculture.”
Parker said it’s important that students know what type of positions exist so they have a career goal to work toward. He said the organization wanted to offer job listings on their site, but its past system was limited. Now students are directed to AgCareers.com via a link under the Employment Center section of the AgrowKnowledge website. Parker said AgCareers.com is an efficient way for students to view available positions in the industry.
Through this new partnership, the two organizations will also work on other projects such as the Skilled Labor Outlook Report.
“The report will consist of expectations, opinions and other information gathered from employees, employers, students and faculty regarding technical careers and their future outlook,” said Ashley Warlick, education coordinator for AgCareers.com. “The survey will help strengthen relationships between the industry and post secondary institutions.”
Warlick said it is projects like these that show how this new partnership will be advantageous to the agriculture industry.
“With our similar goals of serving a workforce tha
