A Farm and Ranch, and Management Apprenticeship Program

A Farm and Ranch, and Management Apprenticeship Program

Patrick Cavanaugh
Patrick Cavanaugh
It's all being done by the Center For Land Based Learning based in Winters, Calif. We spoke recently with Elaine Swiedler, the apprenticeship program coordinator. She noted that the program was developed to address California's shortage of highly skilled workers to fill important farm manager positions.

“Some come with a lot of great skills but not necessarily ag experience,” said Swiedler. “I think in our ideal world someone probably would have experience, but we're, we recognize also from the training program in the past, people are coming from a lot of different industries and have a lot of skills that they can bring to a farm.”

“One of our apprentices right now, like he didn't have any ag experience, but he did have experience working with heavy machinery, so he's been able to become he go-to tractor guy at the farm that he's at,” she said.

And so they're two ways for someone to get involved in our program. “One is if they are a city or a farm person, they can submit an application to us through our website. We accept applications year-round and they answer a bunch of questions and we again try to gauge their skills outside of just ag experience,” noted Swiedler. “But another option is an existing employee at a farm can go through our program to get more training and support, and achieve one of the management roles that allow them to work there way up. I think the industry calls it like up-skilling.”

To learn more go to LandBasedLearning.org/Programs. Then click on the apprenticeship button.

Previous ReportA Conversation with Ben Goudie Membership Development Manager with Blue Diamond Growers
Next ReportAn Apprenticeship Program for Those Who Want To Work on a Farm---Part of Series