CALIFORNIA — Western Growers is rolling out its Careers in Ag Job Center, a jobs platform exclusively for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related careers within the agricultural industry.
The job board is initially launching as a complimentary service for all job seekers and employers and is accessible online at agjobboard.com.
“Agriculture is no longer just cows and plows. As innovation and technological development within our industry continues to boom, hundreds of new job categories in science, technology, engineering and math-related fields are being created annually,” said Tom Nassif, president and CEO at Western Growers. “Our new job board connects candidates directly to highly-skilled, high-paying jobs and makes the hiring and recruitment process easier for our farmers who are busy trying to feed the nation and world.”
The Careers in Ag Job Center aims to fill jobs within the specialty crop industry in a larger effort to close the agricultural workforce gap. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there are 60,000 job openings in agriculture annually with only 35,000 graduates to fill them — many of which are in STEM areas, such as plant and food science, water resources science, engineering and precision agriculture.
The new job board showcases STEM jobs in the fresh produce industry and provides a streamlined interface that gives employers and candidates an easy-to-use matching process.
Candidates looking to find jobs or internships through the platform begin by creating a “job seeker” profile, and then utilize filters to search through jobs by location, distance and keyword preference. Job seekers can also sign up for job alerts, as well as view full profiles of each employer.
The Western Growers team reviews each employer to ensure candidates are applying to real companies with viable opportunities.
Employers interested in hiring through the job center start by creating an “employer” profile. Posting a job takes less than five minutes and companies will be immediately notified when candidates apply for positions.
The job board was created as part of Western Growers’ Careers in Ag, a program that takes college students on three-day tours of agricultural and technology operations in Monterey County, the Central Valley and the Coachella and Imperial valleys and Yuma, Ariz. The program aims to encourage interested and qualified students from partner universities to pursue STEM careers within the California and Arizona agricultural industries.
