Associations Form Partnership Focused on Workforce Development

The Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association has joined the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) and the Equipment Dealers Association (EDA) to award scholarships to educators preparing students for farm equipment careers.

The scholarships aim to increase the number of equipment-specific courses taught in high schools through $2,000 awards, which cover about half of the total cost for teachers to be certified through the Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education, or CASE.

The CASE curriculum was developed by teachers working in cooperation with industry leaders, and to date, it has certified more than 1,800 teachers. Numbers from the first several years of the program, however, reveal that only about 5 percent of those certified pursued equipment-specific courses.

AEM sought to change that, and invited EDA and our Association to join the effort. The scholarships support two courses: agricultural power and technology, which immerses students in exercises that tie math and science to agricultural mechanics and engineering, and mechanical systems in agriculture, which builds competency in operating, repairing, engineering, and designing agricultural tools and equipment.

In 2018, the first association scholarships went to 32 teachers in 15 states. The training touched an estimated 2,200 students during the first school year.

The National Association of Ag Educators manages the program and promotes it among more than 7,000 ag teachers. The application process for the summer 2019 sessions is closed, and winners will be notified by April.

Teachers who take part in the CASE summer session will complete 80 hours of study preparing them to lead students through coursework beginning in fall 2019.

The Association will share news with members about the scholarship recipients in an effort to connect manufacturers with educators and strengthen the program.

“We have an outstanding opportunity to cultivate relationships with teachers who support this industry,” said Vernon Schmidt, executive vice president. “When we identify these teachers, our members can invite them to their plants. They can go to their classrooms and speak. We can raise awareness about the needs in our operations with the people on the front lines of helping meet those needs.”

Workforce development remains one of the most vexing problems facing the industry. According to a recent Deloitte study, the skills gap in manufacturing may leave approximately 2.4 million positions unfilled between 2018 and 2028. And, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 80 percent of the U.S. is employed in a professional services job and only 8 percent in the manufacturing of goods.