Agriculture is facing a labor shortage across the industry. In Indiana alone, the agriculture turnover rate hovers around 75%. However, by 2028, the agriculture industry is projected to grow by 10%, creating an estimated 2,500 new Indiana jobs, reinforcing the need for a strong future talent pipeline. Indiana Pork, a non-profit representing the interests of over 2,800 farmers across Indiana, knew it needed to act.

One of Indiana Pork’s key initiatives is to increase awareness, understanding and relevance of the pork industry as a viable and fulfilling career for young adults. Currently, the membership organization supports 4-H programming, comprehensive curriculum for high school students and internship programs for college students. However, more could be done to attract young talent.

Indiana Pork, with funding support from the Indiana Soybean Alliance, commissioned a survey, the results of which helped determine strategies to support additional youth engagement in the pork industry. The survey of more than 400 Indiana youth found that many high school students are undecided about their career pathway, with many desiring skills-based, on-the-job training.

With the survey insights and a desire to help shape students’ career pathways, Indiana Pork partnered with Ascend Indiana to engage students in the pork production industry through work-based learning (WBL). Work-based learning is broadly defined as an opportunity for students to combine classroom instruction with learning opportunities provided by employers. Indiana Pork focused on developing internships for high school students who had not identified agriculture as a preferred career pathway in the counties that surround Marion County, commonly referred to as the doughnut counties.

“It was a new space for us as an association to embark on addressing the labor challenge,” said Chad Martin, director of Strategic Outreach at Indiana Pork. “When we reached out to Ascend, that helped us focus on our strategy. Ascend helped us gather insights from the industry, as well as from those within the Career and Technical Education (CTE) space, to develop a tactical approach for an internship program.”

“A key component of a successful work-based learning program is to create alignment between educators and employers,” said Audrey Glogoza, Ascend’s senior manager of Workforce Strategies. Ascend brought educators and employers together to define the need, barriers and opportunities to strengthen youth engagement and deliver ag-focused internships to students.

With the help of Ascend, employers communicated to educators the key skills and activities students should learn while on the job so that students gain practical knowledge and workplace competencies. Acknowledging that both employers and educators play critical roles in ensuring the success of the internship program, Ascend helped outline the following considerations for both parties:

Employers:

Employers need to set clear expectations, offer meaningful work, pay students for their work, formalize a Pork Quality Assurance (PQA) credential, provide strong mentorship, seek opportunities to hire students as full-time employees upon successful internship completion and ensure students are trained in safety and health protocols.

Educators:

Educators should ensure students have flexible schedules, maintain communication with the employer to confirm student expectations are clear and collaborate with the employer to provide transportation and other support.

While the employers and educators agreed that the internships should occur during a student’s junior and senior year for at least one semester, they also agreed that career exploration should start in middle school and continue through high school.

Ascend helped create a structure for the ongoing success of internship opportunities for students by clearly identifying the roles and responsibilities of employers and educators and building strong employer-educator partnerships. Indiana Pork will oversee and support the implementation of the internship experience; employers will support career exploration and provide meaningful internship opportunities for students; and educators will support student experiences and collaborate with employers while students are at the worksite.

“Key success factors for this project included getting educators and employers together and demonstrating the power of relationships,” Glogoza said. Also, having an organization like Indiana Pork leading the work is important since they can foster relationships between educators and employers and support the implementation of the internship framework long-term.

Chad says he appreciates the open dialogue among various stakeholders, which was one of the most valuable aspects of the project. “We have some really good relationships with some of our FFA agriculture teachers around the state, but I feel like the CTE connections have been of help and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be collaborating with them on this. I think that was a really good benefit.”

“This project is a great example of industry stepping up at the right time—connecting students with real-world career experiences, strengthening employer-educator partnerships and building a framework that can grow and be a model for other industries across the state,” says Glogoza.

Indiana Pork’s next step is to launch a connection with the doughnut counties region and identify a coalition of WBL coordinators, pork producers and the school systems in the area. Chad says they are also looking to engage with those who are creating WBL programs, convening conversations and mapping out their internship experience. “We want to make sure that young people are getting a fulfilling experience that encourages them to come to our industry for a full-time career following their internship. That’s our hope.”

For a copy of the full summary, contact [email protected].