The future agricultural workforce – Is the next generation aware of the abundance of opportunities

Australian school-aged students represent both the future agricultural workforce and next-generation consumer. To ensure students are best placed for future career and purchasing decisions, adequate knowledge of agriculture is essential. The current research explores the agricultural knowledge of primary and secondary school students, including a discussion of how factors such as gender, year level, location, and farm exposure may impact student understanding. As expected, agricultural knowledge increased with year level. Farm exposure also had a significant impact on student knowledge with students that have never visited a farm found to have lower agricultural knowledge than all other exposure groups. School location was also found to impact agricultural knowledge, though it was students from inner regional areas that displayed the greatest knowledge. This research has highlighted the importance of developing adequate formal and informal education programs for Australian school students. Recommendations from this work include regular and consistent exposure to agriculture or agricultural-related activities across multiple year levels. Further development of modern agriculture learning programs is also recommended, particularly those focused on emerging agricultural technology to ensure students are aware of the current state and how technology is revolutionising the industry and subsequent agricultural workforce.