New partnership delivers self-paced learning and AI-supported coaching for sustainable supply chains and leadership skills.
The Institute of Food & Agribusiness Leadership (IFAL) has joined forces with Kansas City-based Avila University to launch a fully online curriculum designed to boost critical workforce skills for the U.S. food and agribusiness industries.
The programs are built to improve job-role effectiveness and career advancement for early-career and mid-career professionals across the sector. A modular curriculum structure enables tailored content and delivery for specific business contexts and job roles, including private cohorts for enterprise upskilling.
Built on IFAL’s industry-tested curricula, the new certificates combine self-paced learning with on-demand, AI-supported guidance and coaching. This approach helps learners apply frameworks directly to their job roles and real-world business decisions.
The curriculum integrates business model design, AgriFoodTech, sustainability frameworks, distribution strategy, and market-driven innovation. Learners can also choose elective pathways such as sustainable finance, food loss and waste, novel foods, or sustainable sourcing and logistics.
The launch of the course comes at a pivotal time as agriculture and food manufacturing businesses across the U.S. continue to face labor shortages, shifting government policy, rising costs, and the need to rapidly adopt new technologies, intensifying the call for targeted workforce development¹.
At the same time, recent national skills research highlights persistent capability gaps in core skills like problem solving and decision making, identified as the largest skills gap for current experienced employees².
Dr. Andy Jett, Interim President of Avila University, said:
“Avila’s mission is to prepare learners to lead with purpose, and nowhere is that more urgent than in today’s food and agribusiness economy. By partnering with IFAL, we’re delivering flexible, industry-relevant certificates that are immediately actionable on the job. This initiative strengthens the skills pipeline in the Kansas City region and across the U.S., ensuring employers can advance productivity, resilience, and sustainability.”
Dr. Vijayender Nalla, Founder of IFAL, added:
“In an $11 trillion sector employing close to a billion people worldwide, access to domain-specific, role-ready professional development has been limited. Too often, programs have thin curricula and require on-site attendance. Our partnership with Avila changes that by offering proven, outcomes-driven curricula, an engaging self-paced model, and AI-powered guidance that supports decision making in each learner’s specific role and business context.”
With five strategic partnerships across North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, and a physical footprint in the U.S., UK, and India, the ambition of the Avila agribusiness learning and coaching platform is to serve at least 100,000 professional learners each year.
Enrollment is now open. Applications can be made via the Avila website: avila.edu/avila-agribusiness-programs
Sources
¹ FTI Consulting Research
² AgCareers USA Work Skills Survey
About the Certificates
Foundation Certificate: Agribusiness Value Chains
Format: 100% online, self-paced with AI-supported guidance; rolling enrollment
Focus: End-to-end value chain understanding—from inputs and production through processing, logistics, retail, and consumer markets—to strengthen on-the-job decision making.
Advanced Certificate: Sustainable Food Supply Chains
Format: 100% online, instructor-led with AI-supported coaching; cohort-based (year-round intakes; employer-specific private cohorts available)
Focus: Design and leadership of competitive, resilient, sustainability-aligned supply chains, with elective pathways including sustainable finance, food loss and waste, novel foods, and sustainable sourcing and logistics.
Advanced Certificate: Food & Agribusiness Leadership
Format: 100% online, instructor-led with AI-supported coaching; cohort-based
Focus: Leadership and business model strategy for building and scaling innovative agrifood ventures, using applied case-based learning and reflective practice.
Contacts
- Dr. Andy Jett, Interim President, Avila University – Andy.Jett@avila.edu
- Dr. Vijayender Nalla, Partner, Avila Agribusiness Programs and Founder, IFAL – vijay@avila.edu
About Avila University
Avila University is a Catholic university founded and inspired by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. It is a values-based community of learning providing liberal arts, professional, undergraduate, and graduate education to prepare students for responsible lifelong contributions to the global community. Avila offers more than 60 undergraduate majors and concentrations and six graduate degree programs, serving more than 1,600 students at its Kansas City, Missouri campus. Avila is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). School of Education programs are nationally accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) and the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Learn more at avila.edu.
About the Institute of Food & Agribusiness Leadership (IFAL)
The Institute of Food & Agribusiness Leadership (IFAL) addresses professional workforce development needs across the food and agribusiness sector. IFAL’s curriculum, content, and platform capabilities build on more than 15 years of delivering learning and coaching that support both established and scaling startup business models—powering decision making and leadership across global value chains. IFAL’s learning platform and coaching model have been used by more than 50,000 learners, with the objective of serving at least 100,000 professional learners each year. Learn more at ifal.ac or on LinkedIn.