The third of five entries in our Pillars of Professionalism series, profiling people and the skills they’ve mastered to help teach you skills for success in today’s seed industry.
Josie Van Lent is no stranger to the concept of skills enhancement. A major figure within agricultural education in Canada for over four decades, she was dean of agriculture sciences for Alberta’s Lakeland College for over 15 years.
In the fall of 2021, Lakeland College began offering Canada’s first degree in agriculture technology. Why? It all came out of an extensive engagement process with the industry, including seed, to find out what skills are lacking out there and how that gap can be filled.
“When you look at the seed side, technologies like CRISPR are coming in and are really going to change things even more than they’ve already changed,” she says. “People need basic foundational skills that are going to benefit them no matter what segment of the industry they choose to work in.”
Those skills include advanced business and financial skills, soft skills like critical thinking, problem-solving and teamwork, and salesmanship skills.
“Learnability is what all these skills help to cultivate. They require confidence and the ability to walk into your boss’s office and propose new ideas and collaborate to accomplish a common goal. That’s what makes an organization successful.”
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