by Grace Mwaura, MPhil Candidate, Oxford University
The age of a farmer in most African countries is between 50-60 years. In two decades, that generation’s ability to produce food will be limited. Young people are seen as the generation to fill this gap, but the agrifood sector has failed to attract young professionals with new mindsets and innovations. Is there a mismatch in how they are being educated?
This was the question at the education and training panel on the first day of the Young People, Farming and Food conference.
Even though it can be a way to empower people, education has also been framed as preparing young people for the wrong employers, leading to educated unemployed young people engaged in ‘time-pass’ – waiting, often for long periods, for opportunities to arrive. As the panel highlighted, there are various ways in which we need to rethink how we educate and train young people for the agrifood sector.
First: to what ends are young people being educated? Every educated person should be able to use his or her knowledge and skills to contribute to the wider agrifood sector. However, even graduates are not being absorbed into the sector. At all levels, curricula need to be learner-centred and experiential, meeting the needs of the communities where young people are coming from. Education should open up their minds to seize the opportunities, introduce new ways of doing things, or even start up new initiatives.
Secondly, which employers need the young professionals we are educating, and what skills do they actually require? Throughout Africa, education systems tend to teach students too theoretically, and are not oriented to the needs of the ‘new employers’, especially the private sector. YPARD, the movement for young professionals in agricultural research for development, has highlighted the need to equip young professionals with ‘soft skills’. These include research skills, proposal writing and project management, marketing, communication and administration.
Thirdly, who do education and training providers need to work with, to enable young people to make the transition to a working environment? Research institutions, private sector and communities should collaborate with education institutions at all levels to ensure that education is considered as a holistic process of growth and development, and not a phase in one’s life. Both education and training providers, and these other sectors, can help each other.
Finally, education and training is immensely enhanced by innovation, but there needs to be a way to retain innovative minds in the agrifood sector. Mentoring was highlighted at the panel as the ‘new gap’ that institutions need to invest in if they want to entice young people. Mentoring goes beyond supervising young researchers or interns; it’s the commitment to the process of offering advice and support to young professionals during a critical time of life, when they need to decide on their career paths. Unfortunately, there is little success recorded on mentoring in the agrifood sector that the panel could report.
This was the question at the education and training panel on the first day of the FAC conference on young people farming and food. Even though seen as empowering the people, education has also been framed as preparing the young people for the wrong employers, leading to hopeless educated unemployed young people in a ‘time-pass’. The panel highlighted various ways in which we need to rethink how we educate and train the young people for the agrifood sector.
First, it’s not a challenge that young people are not educated, but for what reasons are we educating them, and should we then change our approach. Every educated person should be able to use his or her knowledge and skills to contribute to the wider agrifood sector. However, even the graduates are not being absorbed in the agrifood sector. We therefore need to revisit our curriculum at all levels to ensure that its learner centered and experiential, meeting the needs of the communities where there young people are coming from. Education should open up their minds to seize the opportunities, re-invent the wheel to improve the service delivery, introduce new ways of doing things, or even start- up initiatives that never existed before.
Second, which employers need the young professionals we are educating, and what skills do they actually require? Throughout Africa, the education system was reported to educate the students theoretically and was not oriented to the needs of the ‘new employers’ especially private sector. YPARD, in its past research, has emphasized the need to equip the young professionals with soft skills that are highly demanded by the new employers. Such skills include research skills, proposal writing and project management, marketing skills, communication and administration skills. We therefore need to identify these competencies and equip the young learners as early as possible so that they feel confident and motivated to join the agrifood sector
Third, whom do we need to work with to make education and training successful? Partnerships with relevant stakeholders will enable the transition from the education to the working environment for the young people. Research institutions, private sector, communities, should collaborate with education institutions at all levels to ensure that education is considered as a holistic process of growth and development, and not a phase in one’s life. Partnerships also allow the interaction of the practitioners with the academia, and thereby the structuring of both systems to provide solutions to each other. This puts young people at the center of action and research.
Finally, education and training is immensely enhanced by innovation, but there needs a system of retaining these innovative minds in the agrifood sector. Mentoring was highlighted at the panel as the ‘new gap’ that institutions need to invest in if they wanted to entice young people. Mentoring goes beyond supervising young researchers or interns; it’s the commitment to the process of offering advice and support to young professionals during the critical time of their life, when they need to decide on their career paths. Unfortunately, there is little success recorded on mentoring in the agrifood sector that the panel could report.
Elsewhere in the conference, the theme of education has been discussed at length; it is not only about the existing formal and informal systems, its about the totality of acquiring knowledge and skills from our environment thereby influencing our everyday decisions on the wider agrifood sector.
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This article brings up an excellent point that I think needs more attention. I work for a nonprofit in Africa that provides education to children. I have seen great things come from these efforts but it is an excellent point that educating them in all areas is greatly important and also helping them to prosper once their education is completed. Education is absolutely essential to improving the lives of these great people it is equally as important to ensure that they are able to seek out and find work in all areas once they have gained that education. Thank you for this article it really brings to light a very important issue.