Identification of soil‐related professional profiles for the future from a survey of European stakeholders

Abstract

AbstractCurrent and future stakeholders and decision‐makers involved in agricultural soil management need to develop soil‐related skills to meet the challenges of food security and global change in the coming decades. The aim of this study was to identify professional profiles related to the management, conservation and restoration of agricultural soils on the basis of a European stakeholder survey and to relate these profiles to specific and generic skills. Stakeholders from 24 European countries, selected by the national hubs of the European Joint Programme on agricultural soil management, were invited to propose soil‐related professional profiles that they considered important to develop over the next 20 years. They were then asked to identify up to 15 specific or generic skills that they considered necessary for each profile. In total, 299 stakeholders proposed 1–3 professional profiles each, in 20 languages, for a total of 786 profiles ranging from the bachelor to doctoral level. After translation into English and grouping by expertise, 60 profiles were identified and classified as ‘traditional’, ‘specialised’ or ‘innovative’. Innovative profiles were related to the inclusion of soil in fields that do not currently provide soil‐related education (e.g., communication, mediation, economics, law, land‐use planning, architecture, data science). Correspondence analysis based on the number of times a skill was considered necessary for a given profile led to the grouping of the 60 initial profiles into 10 clusters of profiles that required similar skills: these 10 clusters of profiles were described, and their necessary skills were identified. The clusters illustrate the need to broaden the scope of soil science and the variety of professions that can address soil‐related issues and require knowledge about soils. Ultimately, this list of soil‐related professional profiles and their necessary skills could help revise existing higher‐education curricula or create new curricula.