Abstract
Human resource training for the forestry industry has attracted attention. To consider the future of forestry and forest education in vocational high schools, we analyzed the historical changes in the postwar period based on the Ministry’s official guidelines for school teaching. As a result, forestry and forest education has changed. Education was intended to train technical experts up to the 1970s. Thereafter, employment opportunities declined, and forestry-related courses decreased and diversified. Specialized education turned to training of general workers as members of society, including attending higher-level schools. The contents of education were classified as ongoing contents such as silviculture, additional contents such as forest ecosystem, and decreased contents such as breeding. The number of graduates from forestry related courses decreased, and there are now around 1,000, about 20% of them choose a forest-related career. In future, special education should be aimed at general career training and problem-solving abilities to cope with various situations. The tasks of forestry and forest education are to provide both basic training for general workers and training for technical experts. It is therefore necessary to investigate the contents of education for training forestry experts, educational programs for general career training, and highly specialized teacher training for forestry and forests.
