Avenir-Agro: an attraction program for agricultural engineers
March 24 2025The agriculture, food, forestry, water, environment and global health sectors, which are highly strategic for France on economic, social and ecological levels, are facing two major challenges: generational renewal and the acceleration of climate and environmental transitions. It is in this context that the Avenir-Agro program, winner of the Compétences et Métiers d’Avenir de France 2030 scheme, was launched at the Salon International de l’Agriculture 2025, with the aim of creating a shock of attractiveness around training and career paths for agricultural engineers.
A collective approach and program
The Avenir-Agro program brings together an unprecedented consortium of 26 partners, including all education stakeholders (public and private schools under contract with the Ministry of Agriculture) as well as partners from the socio-professional sector (employers’ federations and stakeholders in vocational information and guidance). The objective is to jointly implement this action program to make agricultural engineering courses more attractive and visible.
“This collective effort will make it possible to address the issue of the identity of the agricultural engineer and then launch a national communication campaign to raise awareness among hundreds of thousands of young people, schoolchildren, secondary school pupils and, of course, post-baccalaureate students, with a regional variation. “It is essential for the younger generation to pursue meaningful careers, but it is also important for the country because the careers for which our establishments prepare students have an obvious strategic dimension for our country,” explains Laurent Buisson, Director General of AgroParisTech, lead institution of Avenir-Agro.
An ambitious project to raise awareness among the younger generations
The Avenir-Agro program aims to encourage vocations from an early age and at key moments of orientation. It aims to highlight the essential role of agricultural engineers in the sustainable transformation of agriculture, food, forest management and natural resources, while helping to restore a positive image of agriculture, forest management and the processing of by-products. This program seeks to raise awareness among learners, their families, teachers, national education guidance professionals and school staff. It represents a major challenge, both for the younger generation, who will thus be able to engage in meaningful professions, and for France, as these professions have an obvious strategic dimension for the country’s future. The aim is to increase the number of agricultural engineers by 30% by 2030.