Determining Human Development Competency Training Needs Of Family And Consumer Sciences Extension Professionals

Cooperative Extension Service (also known as Extension) agents may lack adequate content knowledge to meet the demands of the diverse programming in Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) they are expected to deliver. This article reports on the findings from an assessment of FCS Extension personnel in Mississippi. Two surveys were administered to assess the perceived importance of FCS competencies and the perceived ability to perform them. A rank-sum score was computed, which was used to determine the relative need for training on various Human Development competencies. Findings show that competencies related to child development, parenting, and family stress and crisis warrant training.