Farmer Apprenticeship: Working While Learning or Learning to Work? Experiences and Views on Farmer Apprenticeship in Contemporary Danish Animal Farming

Mette Vaarst () and Inger Anneberg
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Mette Vaarst: Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Aarhus University, 8830 Tjele, Denmark
Inger Anneberg: Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Aarhus University, 8830 Tjele, Denmark

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 15, 1-14

Abstract: Agricultural education of future farmers includes a period of practice in Denmark. How can this be shaped to best support the education and future life as farmers? This question motivated a pilot study of how different factors influenced farmer apprentices’ learning in their on-farm apprentice period, based on interviews of farmer students and host farmers, and to explore this in the historical and social context of Danish agriculture. Three focus group interviews with 24 farmer apprentices were conducted, as well as 14 qualitative semi-structured phone interviews with host farmers. Four major themes emerged from the interviews with host farmers and apprentices: There is a potential conflict between the two perspectives in themes one and two: The host farm primarily as a learning site, versus the apprentice being primarily a farm laborer learning through working on the host farm as a workplace. Thirdly, the on-farm and social environment was suggested to have significant importance for developing into a future farmer, which resonates with the concept of Communities of Practice (CoP). This pilot study raised important issues regarding how future farmers are motivated and educated, highlighting that agricultural colleges play a pivotal role in articulating and guiding how the apprentice learning on-farm can be meaningfully integrated into the other parts of the farmer education.

Keywords: learning; apprenticeship; social networks; community of practice; animal farming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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