Abstract
The US Botanical Capacity Assessment Project (BCAP) was initiated as a first step to gauge the nation's collective ability to meet the environmental challenges of the 21st century. The project, in which the authors of this article are involved, specifically aimed to identify multisector contributions to and gaps in botanical capacity in order to develop growth opportunities to address research and management problems. One of the primary gaps revealed by the BCAP surveys was that the skills graduate students identified as their greatest strengths closely matched the areas future employers (government and private sectors) identified as needing greatest improvement. Although our survey focused on only one discipline (botany), we suspect that the results are applicable throughout the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. We suggest that it is critical for university faculty and administrators to team with professionals from government, nonprofit, and for-profit organizations to identify critical and desired knowledge and skill sets and implement the necessary curriculum changes to provide graduates with the tools they need.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 133-138 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | BioScience |
Volume | 61 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 1 2011 |
Funding
The Botanical Capacity Assessment Project (BCAP) is supported by the Chicago Botanic Garden, Botanic Gardens Conservation International (US), and a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The authors are members of the BCAP advisory board. We thank Jean Schulenberg, graduate students Jennifer Ison and Rebecca Tonietto, and three anonymous reviewers for their critical reviews of the manuscript.
Keywords
- botanical capacity
- education
- employer expectations
- skill sets
- student perceptions
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Agricultural and Biological Sciences