Agriculture Workforce Training for Collaborative Leadership (AWT4CL)

by Ben Casteel --  I have fond memories of my time as a Scout; and though I never made it to Eagle rank, I proudly wore the sash embroidered with the merit badges I earned.  When we began working on digital badging for students in our Agriculture & Natural Resources programs in conjunction with the AWT4CL project , I couldn’t help but to reminisce and draw parallels to the BSA merit badge process .  After two years of piloting the AWT4CL Digital Learning Badges , I strongly believe that there is so much more to these virtual credentials; and what better way to confirm this than by working directly with employers. As a program chair in a technical field, I am not only concerned with grades but even more so for the students employability.  It is for this reason that we meet annually with our Curriculum Advisory Committees at Virginia Highlands Community College.  The Horticulture and Natural Sciences Committee is comprised of 9 representatives (mostly owners/...

by Mallory White -- Three years ago, our institution started exploring digital badges designed around 11 gaps in employability skills and workforce preparedness in college graduates as identified by the APLU . In year one, our institution collaborated with leadership from the AWT4CL project  to help design and learn about classroom activities and associated digital badges . In year two, my Intro to Animal Science course chose to incorporate four of the digital learning badges. In a  December 2023 blog post , I reflected on the pilot year’s successes, challenges, and specific design of each digital badge I used in my classroom. Piloting the badges was a wonderful learning opportunity, and after reflection, led to a fantastic second year! In year two, I was able to improve upon digital badge implementation. I’ve detailed the challenges and solutions that worked for our class in the ‘Problem and Solution Table’ (below). In summary, we spread the activities across multiple ...

by Adam O’Neal -- Participating in the Agricultural Workforce Training for Collaborative Leadership (AWT4CL)  cohort has been a rewarding and instructive experience exploring ways to strengthen durable skills in graduates of agriculture programs. The numerous opportunities to network, share best practices, and explore new methods to improve teaching agriculture classes have been extremely valuable. Image credit: Holgerhubbs, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons . Among the various projects undertaken as part of this program was the implementation of digital badges. In collaboration with colleagues in the Agriculture program at our institution, activities were implemented in three classes for students to earn digital badges for completing activities supporting mastery of 11 durable skills identified by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) . For another study including employability skills and career preparation generally, s...

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 ( V...