Corporate views on needs for English in agriculture industry
Glen Hill, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine

Introduction
 The relevance of English for careers is a strong
motivator for studying. Teachers and science &engineering (S&E) majors often hear that a TOEIC
score is needed: for hiring purposes
 for achieving promotions
 for assignment to overseas posts Globalization forces companies of all sizes toconsider using more written and oral English withcustomers, whether or not the parent office is in aforeign country.
 Studies have shown that study abroadexperience is valuable in improving English fluency
and in acquiring cultural awareness. These areboth strong assets for companies who conductbusiness with clients in English.

Table 3. Are TOEIC scores needed?
DODO-F
Reason
yes no yes noHiring
1a181b
12Promotions
019013Posts abroad
019013a450b~600 preferredcFO
yes no0220223c
19750 (2), 800 (1)Foreign offices showed more requirement forTOEIC score (in no. & %), but almost no employer
expressed a need for any of the 3 commonly cited
reasons. The value of TOEIC score increased withamount of foreign exposure to workers.

But to what extent are these factors applied in
all fields of science and engineering?

Methods
Companies (N=96) who visited Obihiro University inDecember 2013 for recruitment purposes weresurveyed for their responses to the 3 issues above.

Results and Discussion
Response rate was 58%.Two thirds of the 96
companies had businesses directly related to
student majors in various fields of agriculture.
Companies comprised two major groups ofemployers: manufacturers & retailers. Most
were mid-sized (101-300 employees) or large(>1,000 employees).

Table 1. Employer offices and foreign contacts
Domestic office, Domestic office,Foreignno foreign clients
foreign clients
offices(DO)(DO-F)(FO)
221321
Table 2. Breakdown of types of companies
DODO-FFOMfg.
RetailFinancial
Other

% of
industry

% of
DO

% of
industry% ofFO% ofindustry

% of
DO-F

29
292561

23
23
450

1241
022

3350
01759
2975
1748
24
1414

 FOs have more of the manufacturing (59%)
and financial (75%) businesses.
 DO-Fs have the biggest share of the retailbusinesses (41%).

Nobody rated the experience as “very important”.
Most DO-Fs rated it “important”, far higher thanFOs for some reason. FOs and DOs were similar inranking it as “little important” and “not important”.
WHY?
 For 28% of FO companies, English training
takes place in a formal pre-departure system. Noneof DO-F companies have this training.
 19% of FOs said workers study afterdeparture. Perhaps this on-the-job experience isdeemed more valuable than studying abroad.
Table 4. Explanations for Fig. 1 rankings
Value ofstudy
abroadexperience

Important

A little
importantNotimportant

Patterns based on:
Customercountries
DO-F has no
Oriental clients;
FO clients are50%
Orientaland Occidental

Type ofcompany
DO-F mostly
retail;FO has thelargest
mfg
companies

None

None

None

None

Size ofcompany
None(wide range ofsizes)
DO-F medium
FO large
DO-F (none)
FO medium(?)

Conclusions
Despite needs imposed by globalization, claims
that TOEIC is needed for S&E majors, andrecognized benefits of study abroad time, thissurvey of agricultural employers generally does
not find them to be valid or recognized.
A more detailed investigation is needed todetermine any patterns within employer groups.