Spanish poultry education: assisting the needs of the poultry industry

The Hispanic population is rising in most states in the United States, not only as an absolute value but as a proportion of the overall population of each state. Consequently, various poultry-related jobs have been increasingly filled by Hispanic personnel. However, although few problems have risen from lack of performance from these employees, in some cases, the language barrier has hindered professional development and production efficiency. As a result, various broiler integrators have suggested that we equip our undergraduate student body with some basic skills that would enable these future professionals of our industry to better communicate with Hispanic employees, both in casual conversational as well as at the technical poultry level. For that purpose, a course was recently developed and provided to our students and the results seem promising. Acceptance by our students of the technical information being conveyed was, for the most part, satisfactory and it was concluded that finding a common ground as a starting point was the most challenged area.