Agriculture Peer Group Formation at the Virginia Community College System

by Adam O'Neal--

Based on input from a cohort of agriculture faculty from around Virginia, an Agriculture and Food Systems Peer Group has been constituted by the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) to serve the needs of agriculture program faculty around the Commonwealth of Virginia. Peer groups have existed for other disciplines for some time, but none for this area of study until now. From the shared experiences of the Agriculture Workforce Training for Collaborative Leadership (AWT4CL) cohort members and other agriculture faculty, we understand that collaboration at professional levels has proven challenging. This peer group promises potential benefits to agriculture faculty in unraveling professional challenges and related classroom and teaching concerns.

Agriculture is the largest private industry in Virginia, with over 43,000 farms contributing to $82.3B a year in economic impact (Virginia Farm Bureau, n.d.). Though a number of Virginia Community College System (VCCS) schools offer agriculture-related classes and programs, opportunities exist to expand training and education opportunities to expand programs and craft course content to meet the growing and emergent needs of agricultural employers. Our new peer group will help to surface practical ideas that agriculture faculty can use in their teaching practices to enhance the education-workforce pipeline. The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) identified eleven employability skills, the perceived importance of the skills, and how prepared new graduates from agriculture programs were to perform those skills (APLU, n.d.). Incorporating these skills into agriculture courses and programs is an example of a goal that can be supported through the Agriculture and Food Systems Peer Group.


For the communities the VCCS serves as a whole, this Peer Group represents an indirect opportunity to expand the agricultural labor force and improve the skills of students who take agriculture classes at VCCS schools. This is a critical need going forward to support the largest industry in the Commonwealth.


As a new Chair of this Peer Group, I envision it as a space for agriculture faculty to connect and collaborate on anything related to teaching agriculture in the VCCS. Members can share best practices and resources (such as class assignments, presentations, assessments, or other practical tools), seek and offer advice, and get information and support in growing and improving agriculture courses and programs. Incorporation of employability skills training is just one example of possible collaboration opportunities. I am open to ideas about how best to make the Peer Group serve our needs. We can have a Canvas shell as other Peer Groups do. We can explore connecting periodically, either in person (e.g., at New Horizons perhaps), or via Zoom to discuss what we can do collectively to expand and improve agricultural education in Virginia. At present, the Peer Group is under construction. Please reach out to me at aoneal@virginiawestern.edu for more information, with ideas about what this Peer Group can do in the service of that goal, or if you have issues that you would like others’ input on.


Photo Credit: rawpixel.com / U.S. Department of Agriculture 


References

APLU. (n.d.). Employability skills in agriculture & natural resources. https://www.aplu.org/our-work/1-driving-equitable-student-success/preparing-students-for-the-workforce-and-post-collegiate-success/employability-skills-in-agriculture/


Virginia Farm Bureau. (n.d.). Virginia Farm Bureau agriculture facts. https://vafb.com/membership-at-work/agriculture/agriculture-facts#

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