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regarding increasing the yields, hardiness, resilience, and overall
quality of crops are often discovered in greenhouses, with green-
house technicians playing a central role.
The pay: The median salary for a greenhouse technician in the
United States is just under $47,000 per year.
The prospects: As of 2022, there were about 38,000 jobs in the
greenhouse technician field. The BLS is projecting a five percent
growth between 2022 and 2032, equivalent to about 1,900 more
jobs.
The education: Most greenhouse technician jobs do require some
sort of scientific college degree, whether in biology, chemistry, crop
science, animal science, or something else related to agriculture.
However, in many cases, these requirements only demand an
associate’s degree.
Conservation careers
Forestry (the science of planting, managing, caring for, and
conserving forests), agronomy (the science of soil management
and crop product), arboriculture (the cultivation and management
of trees and shrubs, including their trimming and pruning), and
other conservation-related careers can also be seen as being part
of the agricultural skilled trades. Certainly, these careers are related
to the trades, and high school programs focused on them are
sometimes offered at career-tech centers. However, these careers
are also sciences, which are typically thought of in a slightly
different light than the skilled trades. For instance, forestry and
agronomy will both require bachelors’ degrees and sometimes even
graduate degrees.
Still, if you are interested in pursuing a career in one of these
niches, you should ask your counselor if your district’s career-tech
center offers some sort of career focused on agriscience or natural
resource conservation.