An Analysis Of Essential Competencies Needed By Workers In The Ornamental Horticulture And Greenhouse Industries

Author : Curtis Eugene Loewen
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (11 download)

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Download or read book A Curricular Model in Ornamental Horticulture for Vocational Agriculture in Oregon written by Curtis Eugene Loewen and published by . This book was released on 1970 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The central purpose of this study was to formulate and test a model for securing information from the ornamental horticultural industry that would provide a basis for curriculum development in vocational agriculture. In order to develop the model, it was necessary to accomplish the following: 1. Determine typical occupations in ornamental horticulture from employment survey data. 2. Survey a randomly drawn sample of the total population to determine agricultural and business competencies needed for successful performance in the typical occupations. 3. Determine agricultural and business competencies common to most all the typical occupations. An interview schedule was developed with the assistance of an advisory committee composed of representatives from seven occupational groups in the ornamental horticultural industry. The instrument contained 100 competencies which were identified as important to the satisfactory performance of typical workers in each of the occupational areas. Personal interviews were conducted with employers from 56 business firms and agencies located in nine Willamette Valley counties in Oregon. The interviewees were distributed equally among florists, landscapers, and workers employed in garden centers, greenhouses, nurseries, golf courses and parks. The employers rated each knowledge and skill item as to its relative importance for the typical worker in question. The competencies were analyzed and ranked according to mean scores in relation both to their particular occupational groups and as a composite of all the occupational groups. Those items rated as "essential" or "important" by 50 percent or more of the respondents were identified for all seven occupational categories. Mean score comparisons were also made between the respondents and the panel of experts. There were a total of 45 competencies identified as being important and common to all seven occupational categories in the ornamental horticultural industry. It was found that human relations and communications skills were rated in the top nine competencies considered important for all workers in ornamental horticultural occupations. Rated most important in the technical areas were knowledge and skills pertaining to basic plant growth and characteristics, soil composition and drainage, fertilizer materials, pest control, use of chemicals, and basic business operation. The more specialized competencies, particularly those relating to floral and landscape design, were rated least important for horticultural occupations outside these specific areas. Competencies rated important to each of the seven occupational groups were also identified. Landscaper and garden center groups identified the largest number, 64, of necessary competencies. The smallest number of necessary competencies, 27, was listed by the florist group. A range of 43 to 61 items of knowledge and skills were rated as important to the other four groups. There was general agreement between the respondents and the panel of experts in all the occupational areas. This research demonstrated that occupational information for curriculum development in ornamental horticulture can be obtained through the systematic procedure employed in this study. The implications of this study are that the same procedure can be used with other off-farm agricultural industries. The major recommendation was to consider the competencies identified for typical ornamental horticulture workers in the development of the vocational agriculture curriculum.