What changes are happening in the forest sector?
The forest sector has been facing significant changes in the last decade as a result of climate change, digitalization, increased societal expectations about the services they offer among others. Demand for forest ecosystem services is expanding, particularly regulating services (carbon sequestration) and cultural services (recreation, tourism, education, health). At the same time, traditionally important ecosystem services in economic terms such as biomass for bioenergy and modern wood-based mass construction remain relevant. The traditional job portfolio in forestry connected to biomass production and the processing industry has diversified, and new green jobs in different fields are emerging.
These developments have also impacted forest sector employment. The job market for graduates has become diverse and complex. This has created the need for comprehensive education that equips students with sufficient skills and experiences to enable them to serve society adequately and to measure up to future challenges. But despite all these trends and new opportunities arising in the forest sector, several studies have shown a declining interest among young people to the traditional forestry programmes and professions in several world regions (Temu et al., 2005, Ratnasingam et al., 2013; Sharik et al., 2015; Bal et al., 2020; Onatunji et al., 2021). This poses a significant threat to the future of the workforce and the sector since there is a shortage of replacement for ageing workforce. Several literatures have recommended the need to explore ways of making forest-related education and employment attractive to young people and to secure highly qualified workforce, including at graduate level.
Intrinsic motivation and a passion for outdoors: why are students passionate about forests?
Understanding what attracts students to forest-related programmes is very crucial. It can greatly contribute to boosting recruitment into these programmes. It can also indicate the level of commitment by students to completing their studies and reduce dropout rates. In addition to that it determines the kind of employee they will become in the future. It is also necessary in enhancing the robustness of the curriculum to ensure that the workforce possess sufficient skills in forest-related disciplines, science-policy interface, stakeholder management, and communication among other skills.
The “Global student networking and green jobs in the forest sector project” (https://ifsa.net/efi-ifsa-iufro-project/) (2018-2022) carried out a global survey between June and December 2020 which attracted responses from 787 students in forest-related programmes representing 82 nationalities. The study was part of the collaborative project by the European Forest Institute (EFI), the International Forestry Students Association (IFSA) and the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO). The goal of the survey was to find out what drives students to pursue forest-related programmes. It also investigated forest-related fields of employment they would like to explore after graduation as well as employers they want to work for.
The study revealed that the interest among students to pursue forest-related programmes was driven by intrinsic motivation such as desire to make a meaningful contribution to the environment and society, job satisfaction derived from careers in the sector and passion for working outdoors. Forest-related nature and biodiversity conservation, forest-related research and forest-related regional and land use development (Agroforestry and Mountain Forestry etc.) were the three most popular thematic areas that students would like to engage in. On the other hand, the interest to work in forest and wood processing industries and non-forest related fields was low. A majority of the students expressed high motivation to work for employers such as international organizations, research organizations (e.g. Universities or Research Centers) and non-governmental organizations (NGO).
Conclusions from the study findings: more attractive fields of work, and more security to find a job needed
These findings indicate that education programmes should be tailored in a way that gives students a chance to engage in beneficial tasks and to work outdoors. This way, more students could be attracted to the profession. Diversifying the fields of employment where students can work is therefore necessary and could be attained if the curriculum covers emerging topics such as urban forestry, forest-based recreation, forest-related human health, and entrepreneurship.
Students are still facing uncertainty about finding forest-related jobs after graduation, therefore universities and future employers should strive to expose students to diverse sources of information about the possible career options in the forest-related sector as early as possible during their studies. This way they will enable them to make informed choices. Universities and future employers could also support students to be better prepared for future jobs.
If you are interested in more information about the results of the study please check this article “Passion for nature: global student motivations for forest-related education and career aspirations” (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1505/146554823837586212) by researchers from EFI (Juliet Achieng, Lisa Prior, Yitagesu Tekle), Wageningen (Georg Winkel), IUFRO (Janice Burns), Technical University Dresden (Lukas Giessen) and University of Freiburg (Peter Poschen).
Feature image by Lena_viridis/AdobeStock.
