December 2025

Agriculture Career
Exploration Challenge

Discover Your Future in Agriculture

From farm to table, the agriculture and food systems sector offers diverse career paths that feed our communities and sustain our planet. Explore Canada's agriculture sector in this challenge as you increase your awareness and cultivate curiosity in agriculture and food careers across the country.

Whatever the career you want, you can do it in agriculture!

Agriculture and food systems are essential to our communities and economy. With careers in farming, food science, agribusiness, research, technology, and sustainability – there's a place for you in agriculture.

Challenge Overview

Active Submission Period

December 1-31, 2025

Eligibility

Grades 7-12 students across Canada

Total Incentives

$10,000 in micro grants

Individual Awards

20 winners × $500 each

Submission Deadline

December 31, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST

Challenge Details

The agriculture and food systems sector is at the forefront of innovation, sustainability, and community development.

This challenge invites students to explore the diverse career pathways in agriculture, from traditional farming practices to modern food technology and environmental stewardship.

Start by identifying a specific role within the agriculture and food systems sector, for example: Agricultural Scientist, Food Technologist, Farm Manager, Sustainability Coordinator, etc. There are MANY to choose from. You can use the thinkAG Resources below, and/or do your own research, but you need to be able to cite your sources. Important: Select one specific role. Research it. Research what it's really like to work in this role. For example: • What does someone in this job do all day? • What are their main tasks and responsibilities? • Do they work regular 9 to 5 hours, or do they work shifts, weekends, or seasonal schedules? • Where do they work? Is it indoors, outdoors, in a lab, in the field, or a combination? • What types of projects or challenges do they work on?

Identify 2-3 skills or competencies that are required in that role. These could be transferable or durable skills like problem-solving and communication, and/or more specific technical skills that are unique to the role. IMPORTANT: Don't just name them. Give specific examples of how someone actually uses each skill on the job. For example, if you identified problem-solving as a key skill, describe a specific work task or responsibility in this role where someone would apply problem-solving. What kind of problems do they solve? How do they approach them? Be specific about how each skill connects to the daily work tasks and responsibilities you identified in Step 1.

Research the education and training required for this role. • How do you actually get into this career? • Is it an apprenticeship where you learn while working? • What college or university programs exist for this career? • How long does training take? • Where can you get this training in Canada? • Are there specific certifications or licenses required? • What courses should you take in high school to prepare? Pro tip: Be specific. For example, instead of just saying 'a college program', mention a specific program and institution.

Research and describe specific innovations or sustainable practices being implemented in the agriculture sector and their importance to Canada's food security and environmental goals. Don't just give general examples. Be specific: • Name actual technologies, methods, or initiatives being used • Identify specific organizations, farms, or companies implementing these practices • Explain how these innovations connect to the career role you've been researching For example, if you're researching precision agriculture technology, name the specific tools or platforms being used. If you're discussing sustainable farming methods, identify farms or regions in Canada where these are being implemented. Cite your sources when speaking to this.

Research the job outlook for the role you have been researching. • Is this career in-demand? • How many of these jobs are projected to be needed in your province/territory? • What's causing the demand (like people retiring, industry growth, or new technology creating jobs)? Where are the jobs in Canada? Is there a higher demand for it in one part of the country than another? Cite your sources when speaking to this. You don't need to submit anything extra - just mention them in your video. For example, saying/showing something like any of the below would work great: • "according to Job Bank..." • "the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada website says..." • "StatsCan projects..." • "this report from Indeed says..." • "the myBlueprint occupation profile for this occupation mentions..."

Create a 60-90 second video showing what you did in the activity and what you learned from the research across Steps 1-5. How you choose to structure your video is up to you. • Vertical vs. horizontal? Up to you. • Talking head vs. all animations? Up to you. • Documentary style vs. tiktok style? Up to you. The only requirements are that it addresses each of the 5 steps above (including evidence of your completed activity), and we're able to click a link to watch it. Everything else is up to you. IMPORTANT: Make sure the video link has the proper sharing settings in place. For example: • If you're using Google Drive, make sure someone outside of your organization can watch it. • If you're using Youtube, make sure it's not listed as Private. Unlisted works great though. • Make sure it's not something that requires us to log in. A great way to test this is by pasting your link into a Chrome Incognito window. If it works in there without requiring login, it should work for us too. It's your responsibility to make sure we can view your work.

Evaluation Rubric Summary

Total: 100 points

Content & Accuracy

25%

Comprehensive coverage of all 5 required steps with accurate, detailed information

Research & Citations

25%

Quality sources properly cited throughout the video presentation

Engagement & Creativity

25%

Compelling delivery that maintains viewer interest through creative presentation

Communication & Clarity

25%

Clear audio/visuals with logical organization, smooth flow, and meets 60-90 second requirement

View Detailed Evaluation Rubric Here

Frequently Asked Questions

Get answers to common questions about this activity

Carefully read the Activity Details steps 1-5 to understand what is being asked of you in this activity. You can also watch the How this Works video for a detailed overview.

You're being asked to submit a 60 to 90 second video highlighting the research you did from steps 1 through 5 in this specific activity. It's important that the video you create is shared as a clickable link, not something that we need to download, and that you've made sure that the sharing settings are set up in a way that we have access to view the video. It's a good idea to test this before submitting.

Yes, you can complete the activity multiple times for different roles within the agriculture sector, though students can only win one micro grant per activity. We'd encourage you to focus on quality, not quantity.

No, it's whatever feels authentic and engaging to you. It can be a Tik Tok style video with lots of different cuts and background music or more documentary style - whatever you will enjoy making more, and clearly communicates the requested information from steps 1-5.

Nope, it doesn't matter at all what tool you use. There are lots of free tools available to make videos today. Check with your school to see what they already have access to. For example, Canva is a great tool to be able to create videos with.

Lots of skills like research, critical thinking, communication, content creation, and many others. It would be a good idea to add the completed video to your myBlueprint portfolio and reflect on what skills you feel like you've developed as part of completing this activity.

Submissions will be reviewed by a team of representatives from myBlueprint. We may, if needed, collaborate with representatives from thinkAG.

Yes, videos will be accepted in either English or French.

Depending on the volume of submissions, we plan to have selected, and be able to announce winners by the midpoint of the following month. So for example, with this activity, we hope to be able to announce the December winners by mid-January.

Yeah, that's a great idea, along with a reflection of what you learned from doing this activity and what you found interesting. As a heads up, we'll also be asking students to submit evidence of their completed activities through a myBlueprint portfolio if you plan on applying for one of the Series Completion incentives at the end of the year.

You can absolutely complete this activity on your own. That being said, you should absolutely communicate with your teachers (and parents) that you're doing this and see if you can potentially earn credit for the work that you're doing for this activity.

The December challenge has been designed as an individual activity.

Yes, you can still submit monthly activities after the deadline. However, any activity submitted after the deadline is not eligible for that month's pool of micro grants. It still makes sense to complete them even after the deadline so that you can potentially earn one of the Series Completion incentives. Those only require all activities to be completed, not necessarily completed within the month of the activity.

Teachers won't be able to see through myBlueprint which students have submitted activities or not. However, we will create reports that will be shared with your myBlueprint lead at the school board level who can share specifics with you upon request.

myBlueprint is solely responsible for running the Industry Immersion Series. Meaning that only myBlueprint is collecting any information related to this Series. No personally identifiable information is being shared with any 3rd parties. We will publish de-identified (anonymous summary data) information to provide updates on how the Series is going. For example, the number of activity submissions received for each month, which province they're coming from, and communicate with our school board partners about school-specific participation. Click here to see the questions students are being asked to answer when they submit their completed activity.