GrainsWest Spring 2017

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By STAN BLADE, . FROM LAB TO FIELD
Thesky’s the limit
As dean of a faculty that has
more than 2,000 students (at a university
with a population of 39,000-plus) I see
the decisions that students are constantly
faced with when it comes to their careers.
And at a personal level, I have two teen-
agers who are choosing their first steps on
the pathway to post-secondary education
and career possibilities. It is a noisy, excit-
ing, confusing environment that they, and
all students, face.
What could be more daunting than
making decisions about how you will
spend a significant portion of your
lifetime? Add to that the compelling
reminder that specific career choices
will establish a student’s ability to secure
employment and determine levels of com-
pensation, and those decisions become
even more difficult. I also hear students
expressing their desire to have a job where
their work aligns with their values and
their employer shares their worldview and
perspective on specific topics.
How do we expand the pool of bright,
capable people who opt to seek training
and career opportunities in the agri-
food sector? The Government of Canada
estimated in 2013 that the agriculture
and agri-food sector provided one in eight
Canadian jobs, employing more than 2.2
million people overall. We need people
with a wide range of skill sets and inter-
ests to ensure our industry continues to
grow and reach its full potential. Thank-
fully, many students who are exposed to
the subject matter and the career oppor-
tunities that exist get hooked. Our Faculty
of Agricultural, Life and Environmental
Sciences here at the University of Alberta
has the highest number of first-year trans-
fer students of any faculty on campus.
Often, students who are enrolled in arts
or science programs take a course in our
faculty and discover their fascination with
nutrition, soils or agribusiness. They see
how interesting the courses are and get a
glimpse of how they could build a career
in agriculture and agri-food.
U of A professor Frank Robinson and
his colleagues have come up with a bril-
liant initiative for our animal science stu-
dents called the Rural Café. The concept
is for students to engage with livestock
producers in a “speed dating” format. Our
students had the opportunity (in small
groups) to interact directly with leading
poultry, hog and dairy producers. Students
could chat with the owners of a thorough-
bred stable, elk farm or bison farm. Many
of our students do not come from a farm
background, making this their first experi-
ence with the people “behind the scenes”
of the industry. When the bell would ring
for groups to move to their next table, it
was a struggle to break up the rich, per-
sonal conversations.
There are many things we can learn
from other sectors. When the Alberta
forestry industry was faced with declin-
ing interest in the industry among high
school students, the entire sector invested
in “Work Wild.” This is a campaign that
reaches out to students across the province
to provide a window into the diversity of
employment choices in forestry. Industry
representatives visit high schools and talk
about the opportunities to work outdoors
as an environmental co-ordinator or hy-
drologist, and describe the need for highly
trained engineers to run laser-imaging
systems that optimize the value of every
tree that enters the mill. They also outline
other unique career opportunities, such
as aboriginal engagement roles, geospa-
tial imaging specialists and reforestation
experts. The agri-food sector already does
some great work when it comes to high-
lighting career opportunities, but Work
Wild is an excellent example of targeted
investment by industry that is paying off,
as we watch the forestry program enrol-
ment increase in our faculty.
Business magazines Forbes and U.S.
News & World Report have identified jobs
in agriculture as one of the top opportuni-
ties for undergraduate students. Similarly,
Purdue University in Indiana and the U.S.
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
released a report in 2015 that then-U.S.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
summarized by saying, “there is incredi-
ble opportunity for highly skilled jobs in
agriculture.” When a group of Canadian
guidance counsellors from schools in
Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Victo-
ria visited the University of Alberta last
year, they specifically asked to meet with
our faculty due to the interests of their
students in food security, sustainability
and the environmental sciences. The next
step is working out how we can directly
engage with students and people early in
their careers to show how their interests
and ideas align with the employment
needs and opportunities in our sector.
Stan Blade, PhD, is dean of the Faculty of
Agricultural, Life and Environmental Scienc-
es at the University of Alberta.
Recruitingagriculture andagri-food’snext generationof innovators
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