Career Success Tours: Exploring job opportunities in agriculture

INDIANAPOLIS — FFA students can explore future job opportunities at the National FFA Convention, thanks to Career Success Tours.

“One of the pillars of attending the National FFA Convention & Expo is about career exploration,” said Mandy Hazlett, associate director of convention and events management programs at FFA.

“Our Career Success Tours are behind-the-scenes experiences at different businesses and organizations in agriculture. Our tours fit under one of the eight different career pathways and provide not just instructional information, but a hands-on component, as well, during the tour.”

The tours give FFA members a detailed look at agricultural careers in eight areas: agribusiness systems, animal systems, biotechnology systems, environmental service systems, food products and processing systems, natural resources systems, plant systems, and power, structural and technical systems.

“Most places will have multiple employees share about their careers and how they got there with education background, skill sets, etc.,” Hazlett said.

“The hope is that the experience will spark an interest in FFA members to pursue those careers paths.

Examples of Career Success Tour locations in central Indiana include:

• ADM Grain Company in Beech Grove — careers in agribusiness systems and plant systems. Participants will see how ADM Grain helps feed the world. Visitors will get an up-close look at ADM’s numerous roles, responsibilities and career opportunities.

• Bayer Crop Science in Whitestown — careers in agribusiness systems, biotechnology systems and plant systems. Students can tour an automated seed-filling operations facility.

• Beck’s Hybrids in Atlanta — careers in agribusiness systems, biotechnology systems and plant systems. The tours will focus on seed research, biotechnology, seed production technology, agronomy research, marketing, seed processing, precision agriculture, data analytics and private cloud.

• Case IH in Lebanon — careers in agribusiness systems and power, structural and technical systems. Students will see equipment and talk to dealers who sell and service the equipment. Then students will tour Case IH’s largest distribution facility, which houses more than 800,000 square feet of parts supplied to the dealers for service.

• Dandy Breeze Dairy in Sheridan — careers in agribusiness systems, animal systems, and food products and processing systems. Students can visit a working farm that produces crops and milk, learn the benefits of using milk from Jersey cows and see how this company processes the milk and bottles it for local consumption.