Education programmes of job
Nature of work
He/she works independently within the powers conferred upon him/her or as a team member in preparing field agricultural survey, overseeing and evaluating the implementation, planning the guidance programs, supervising the implementation, preparing guide programs requirements, managing subordinates and developing their skills; developing procedures, and providing occupational safety and health requirements. An extension worker:- Visits farms fields conducted to determine their problems and set the priorities to transfer them to researchers.
- Prepares questionnaires and surveys for the farmers.
- Plans extension programs for transferring modern agricultural technologies.
- Raises production efficiency and production of high-quality goods.
- Evaluates the guide plan programs.
- Identifies materials and equipment quantity tables.
- Prepares the pre-requisites, and studies the technical and financial aspects
- Prepares the reports, and develops the working methods using modern techniques.
- Evaluates the subordinates performance to identify their training needs, and trains them to improve their skills.
- Provides and develops occupational safety and health requirements.
Environment of work
- Extension worker works about 8 hours a day in his office, but his/her job requires him/her sometimes to work extra time in the weekends and during the holidays when the harvesting season starts.
- The majority of this work is not in the extension unit office. It is a field work that includes a lot of fields activities which requires comfortable practical field dress.
- This job needs aids and means that can be used by the extension worker.
- The work environment diverse from the office to the field
- He/she can work in all agricultural field of activities.
- He/she can collaborate with materials specialist and research centers.
- He/she can work independently in counseling to get experience.
- This profession is constantly evolving .
- This job requires sometimes travelling abroad to train and get other countries' experiences.
Professional life
- Men and women can work in this job, especially in giving guidance information for rural women in the field of home economics.
- Extension worker can practice his/her work independently within the powers conferred upon him/her or as a team boss in private or public sectors. His salary in public sector will be at least 20000 Syrian bounds.
- Extension worker career progression upgrades when gaining more practical and managerial experiences through the head guidance unit to departments and divisions in the extension department, which includes planning and extension programs and agricultural media.
- Extension worker work is important for the agricultural production development. So all countries seek after the presence of extension workers in agricultural crops production and marketing places.
- Extension worker may travel abroad for training or gaining more academic and practical experience in various agriculture fields. This can be done also through training courses, seminars and various activities that provide him /her before and during work.
Sectors of careers
- Field crops, vegetables and fruit farms and livestock farms.
- Agro-food and agro-processing.
- Broadcasting Stations.
- Forests and pastures and the environment.
- Agriculture Departments.
- Rural development centers.
- Agriculture Researches Centers.
- Faculty of Agriculture, and Technical Institutes.
- Agriculture Department and Agriculture centers.
Getting the job
- For getting this job, the person has to study in one of agriculture faculty departments.
- The students during that should get some related courses such as: communication methods, education process and principles, taking up the new agricultural innovations that contribute greatly to the improvement of performance. In addition to foreign languages, computer programming, engineering quality knowledge.
- Preferably, agriculture faculty graduated students pursue their graduated program studies in agricultural economy department to get their master's and Ph.D. degrees.
Skills
- Ability to work effectively as a member of a multidisciplinary team and be familiar with the various work environments.
- Ability to demonstrate effective interpersonal skills in the work environment in terms of the ability to devise solutions and creative ideas.
- Ability of continuous self learning to keep convoying the technological development and transfer the major skills and knowledge.
- Ability to achieve the required work on time, and manage time efficiently and work according to imposed priorities.
- Ability to manage tasks and resources efficiently.
- Ability to evaluate the performance of employees and work permanently to raise their skills.
- Ability to deal with farmer.
- Ability to cooperate and coordinate with other rural organizations and institutions, and compute the agriculture problems which is facing farmers to submit them to the research centers
- Ability to transfer suitable scientific solutions appropriately to farmers for applying
- Ability to find rural leaders to train them on agricultural extension works
- He /she should have a good manners, and accept some farmers customary habits.
Sources and references
- Agriculture Faculty Internal Regulation 2007 – Aleppo University.
- Arab Standard Classification of Occupations- Arab Labor Organization-2008.
- National Academic Reference Standard (NARS)- Syrian High Education Ministry- 2012