Better Farming - November 2016

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16 FarmNews First > Better Farming November 2016
AGRI-FOODJOBS
Training the next generation of agri-food workers
The Centre For Food at Durham College’sWhitby Campus
integrates horticulture courses with culinary skills
development and hospitality management.
Durham College photo
A recent report warns the federal and provincial gov-
ernments about the labour shortage in Ontario’s
agri-food sector and provides policy recommendations
to alleviate the problem.
The Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) released
Fertile Ground: Growing the Competitiveness of Ontario’s
Agri-food Sector in October. The 29-page report, written
by Kathryn Sullivan, policy analyst at OCC, was spon-
sored by Maple Leaf Foods. Key among the report’s
recommendations is a new focus on agri-food educa-
tion.
The OCC praises Ontario’s education system for its
flexibility in keeping its ag curriculum up to date, and
the report notes that formal education in agriculture is
highly in demand.
“Employers value the skills taught in agriculture
courses,” said Sullivan. “Sixty per cent of respondents (to
the OCC’s survey) showed a preference for post-second-
ary education when hiring. We also recognize that
demand exceeds supply.”
The report said modern agri-food education must
provide graduates with “soft skills, including communi-
cation, teamwork, presentation, time management, and
organization skills.”
The newly opened Centre for Food at Durham
College’s Whitby campus emphasizes these skills and
recognizes the integration of the agri-food supply
chain.
“We created this school that we think is different
from our competitors,” said Sue Todd, Durham College’s
dean of science and engineering technology. “We
wanted to look at all areas of food: growing it, preparing
it, the health benefits of it and how to reduce the
pollution aspects of it.”
The Centre for Food actually started with culinary
students. “Then we brought in hospitality management
and then horticulture. All the students learn basic
planting, soils, pest management (and) greenhouse
management. They learn safe food-handling practices,
food production, processing, and the storage and
testing of food,” she said.
“This allows them (students) to appreciate the full
cycle of it. They have an understanding of the whole
chain of where and how food is grown, how we harvest
it, how we store it and how we create added value to it.”
Knowing all the basics is critical for students who, in a
changing world, may end up doing a job that doesn’t
exist today.
“They have to know the fundamentals. You have to
give them the raw science behind it,” Todd said. “This
gives them the foundation to be creative and pursue
new product areas.”
At the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph,
updating the curriculum is constant. “Keeping our
current programs current is very important,” said Rene
Van Acker, the college’s dean. “We’ve increasingly
provided opportunities for travel and experiential
learning.”
Keeping the curriculum current means staying in
touch with the agri-food industry.
“We work really closely with industry partners,
greenhouse growers, nursery growers, food producers
and food processors,” said Todd. “We meet with them
twice a year and talk about the latest trends: what’s
happening in the industry and new skills and technolo-
gies that are appearing. Then we’ll look at that in light of
our curriculum.”
Both Durham College and the OAC have faculty
members who have worked or are working in the
industry. They also keep the curriculum current.
Both institutions have out-reach programs that seek
to recruit new students to agri-food education, and
both institutions see demographic changes in their
student profiles.
OAC’s Van Acker said urban-based students now form
a majority of agriculture students, while Durham
College’s Todd said her students are older.
“The average age is closer to 30 than it is to 18,” she
said. “They’ve been in the workforce, found an interest
in agri-food and come to us for formal education.” BF