One of the challenges with finding people to work on a farm is finding people with the right knowledge to be an asset. The Agriculture Operator Program, a pilot project beginning at the Parkland College in partnership with the federal and provincial governments, aims to teach students about essential farm knowledge.
Saskatchewan Agriculture minister Lyle Stewart says that the program will be the first of its kind in the province, and it has been sorely needed in Saskatchewan.
"One of the main problems the industry has faced in recent years is attracting skilled labored, people able to perform the basic functions required on a modern farm," he says.
The college is working with Lakeland College in Alberta to design the course, as they have experience with similar programs on their campus. Fay Myers, President of Parkland College says that their expertise in the field has been key to making the program a success.
"It is exactly what is needed for Saskatchewan for this type of farm operator's program."
The first module of the program will begin on March 3 with the seeding module. This will consist of 36 hours of hands-on workshops and nine hours of online delivery. Other modules will be rolled out over the year - spraying beginning in May, and harvest in July - and expansion into livestock is also planned for the future.
Stewart says that it was a logical choice to make Parkland College the campus to pilot the project.
"It's hard to find a better fit. It's here in an agricultural setting, it's a modern campus that had some capacity. Parkland was interested and we were certainly interested in working with Parkland."
Stewart says that the eventual goal is to have this program offered through college's throughout the province, and he says that there is a big demand from the industry to see students put through the program and gaining the necessary skills.
In a separate announcement concerning Parkland College - also made this week - was the federal government's commitment to $950,000 for the Power Engineering Lab. Part of the upcoming Trades and Technology Center, the power engineering lab will be used to train Power Engineers, a career field which has been identified by the resource sector as being in a critical shortage going into the future as current engineers retire.
