PCI Students Learning About Agriculture This Week

This week, Portage Collegiate is piloting a career development initiative focusing on career exploration for grade nine students. It'll focus on careers in agriculture.

Yesterday, Munro Farm Supplies' Agronomist Taralea Simpson spoke to students about her career in the agriculture industry. She says most kids think it's just about farming, but notes there are many more aspects to consider.

"They don't think it's about computers or drones or technology or mapping, or driving big equipment full of computers, they think "oh I'm going to be a farmer" which is awesome, but a lot of kids aren't exposed to it anymore, so they don't really understand agriculture and all the different avenues you can take," says Simpson.

Simpson grew up on a farm, so she says developing her career within agriculture was a natural path for her to take. She hopes kids will consider it as a career as there are a lot of opportunities, and we all rely on the industry.

"2.2 million people in Canada require work in agriculture. It's growing everyday, and it changes rapidly, in the crops that we grow and how we grow them, and looking at environmental sustainability and technology...the kids should look at it. There's so many opportunities in science and genetics and technology that it's just a really exciting field to be in," Simpson says.

Portage School Division Career Development Coordinator Blair Hordeski says it was important to expose all students to agriculture, not just those with a farming background. He says thinking about their options early is necessary as students have a lot of decisions to make.

"We want students to do some thinking about their future. We want to help them establish their vocational identity so that as they go through high school, they're making informed choices about their future with their course selections. There's so many decisions that students have to make. We want to make sure they have a lot of information so they can make those informed choices for the future," says Hordeski.

Students are required to fill out an exit slip after each presenter, so they can give feedback, reflecting on the experience and explain what they learned from the presentations. Hordeski says the rest of the week will see presenters discussing technology in agriculture, a student from the University of Manitoba's Agriculture program will speak, and another presenter will discuss animal sciences.

"I think the important piece is that we planted the seed for exploring careers in agriculture," Hordeski says.