A total of 250 students studying agricultural science at third level took part in the Irish Farmers Journal student survey on the jobs market in February 2025.

Representing the future workforce, it is important to get student opinions on the sector and what they consider when looking at their career.

When students were asked what they hoped to do immediately after they graduated from college, 40% indicated they wanted to go straight into an industry job, which is positive news for companies looking to hire recent graduates.

Along with this, 22% are looking at further education through either a master’s or PhD programme. Just 13% are going straight into farming, with 9% hoping to start a graduate programme; a further 9% are hoping to travel and 6% selected other (Figure 1).

Of those who intend to farm, 80% said they will be part-time farming with an off-farm job, while 20% indicated they will be farming full-time (Figure 2).

The outlook for agriculture

The outlook for the future of farming among the next generation is looking bright.

When students were asked to rate their outlook of the sector, we can see from Figure 6, that 12% said strongly positive, 49% positive, 23% neutral and 16% negative. None of the students selected very negative.

There has been a positive move with regard to the number of women studying agriculture as 61% of the recipients who completed the survey were female compared to 39% male (Figure 3).

Employment priorities

According to our study, the most important factor for students looking at jobs after college is career progression at 36%. This was followed by salary at 23%, job stability at 17%, the job needing to be in a field relevant to their degree at 15% and hybrid working was the lowest factor at 9% (Figure 4).

For those intending to work off-farm, we asked students to indicate their expected salary (Figure 5). We found that 30% are expecting to start on a salary of €35,000-40,000.

This was closely followed by €40,000-45,000 (27%) and over €45,000 (20%). This highlights that salary expectations are growing among this age cohort with only 1% expecting a wage of under €25,000.

Student opinions

Some students shared their opinions on the outlook of the sector.

“I think the future of the agricultural sector is really bright and promising in terms of advancements in technology such as precision agriculture,” said Kayley Simpson, an environmental science student at University College Dublin.

“I also think there has been a heightened focus on sustainable practices in recent years with many farmers moving towards organic and extensive production systems, as they gain a better understanding of their stewardship of the land. Finally, as a young student beginning my career, I’m inspired by the abundance of job opportunities, ensuring me a secure future in the sector. I think the cost of living is difficult to meet when only working part-time and trying to achieve good results. I am limited to the number of hours I allow myself to work.”

Sarah Lyster, a student at Dundalk Institute of Technology, said she has “both negative and positive thoughts for the future of agriculture.

“Environmental regulations are going to reduce farmer numbers and products produced, but on the other hand that will make for a higher demand for the farming still being done and possibly increase respect and profits for the farmer.”

One respondent who wished to remain anonymous said “the Government needs to do more to support students as college is very expensive. The only way to afford college is to work long hours after college. This can have a negative effect on students’ grades.

“More needs to be done to encourage young people to work in the agricultural sector, for example by increasing the Complimentary Income Support for Young Farmers (CISYF) to 10 or 15 years.

“And there are so many restrictions in agriculture that this is scaring young people away from the sector.”