Determining Human Development Competency Training Needs of Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Professionals

Abstract

Cooperative Extension Service (also known as Extension) agents may lack adequate content knowledge to meet the demands of the diverse programming in Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) they are expected to deliver. This article reports on the findings from an assessment of FCS Extension personnel in Mississippi. Two surveys were administered to assess the perceived importance of FCS competencies and the perceived ability to perform them. A rank‐sum score was computed, which was used to determine the relative need for training on various Human Development competencies. Findings show that competencies related to child development, parenting, and family stress and crisis warrant training.

Assessing produce safety rule knowledge, behavior change, compliance, and the development of resources of specialty crop produce growers in the US: North Central Region, Alabama, Georgia

“…Ghimire and Suvedi (2017) define competencies as the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors that allow individuals to execute their tasks effectively. In the U.S. CES, core competencies are tools used to make decisions that will enhance the relevance, usefulness, and quality of educational programs developed by Extension Professionals (Hardman et al, 2021). Competencies reveal areas of training and development needs for target audiences, improve Extension professionals' responsiveness to their audiences' needs, and allow them to focus training efforts on areas where it is most needed (Hardman et al, 2021).…”