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INVESTIGATOR: Hashley, J.

PERFORMING INSTITUTION:
TUFTS UNIVERSITY, SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
136 HARRISON AVENUE
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02111

BUILDING NATIONAL FARMER AND RANCHER APPRENTICESHIP CURRICULA, BEST PRACTICES, AND ĀTRAIN THE TRAINERĀ RESOURCES

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Existing apprenticeship and mentoring programs desire shared guidelines and best practices to meet clearly articulated learning goals for producers apprenticing and gaining management skills on commercial farms or ranches. Agricultural career pathways beyond apprenticeship also need development. A national learning network to develop shared curriculum and best practices will elevate the quality of 50+ apprenticeship programs serving over 1,000 producers. This 3-year project will bring together leaders in the field of agricultural apprenticeship facilitation to identify gaps and develop new resources and training materials for nonprofits, CBOs, and commercial farms or ranches looking to improve their management or facilitation of apprenticeship learning programs. The project team of 5 core partners and advisors from 24 organizations will: research existing apprenticeship program design, curricula, and operations to understand best practices and successes/challenges, liaison with the Department of Labor to understanding formal Apprenticeship requirements for diverse agricultural sectors, and develop a comprehensive "Designing and Delivering a Quality Legal Apprenticeship Program for Beginning Farmer and Ranchers" Toolkit for national distribution. A national "Apprenticeship" clearinghouse website will house project materials, operate a technical assistance referral service, and host farm/ranch mentor training modules. Eight national webinars and conference presentations will describe administering quality apprenticeships, and highlight case studies on successful apprenticeship programs. Five regional training-of-trainer workshops for farm and ranch mentors and an annual national conference will allow Apprenticeship programs to share best practices, receive ongoing professional development, evaluate resource materials, and set agendas for future programming. Producer support services for post-apprenticeship programing will be explored.

OBJECTIVES: The overall goal of this BFRDP EET project is to strengthen the capacity of 50+ apprenticeship training programs to provide high quality experiential education and training for over 1,000 beginning farmers and ranchers. We will do so by taking stock of the existing field and identifying best practices. We will research, analyze, and evaluate current programs, and address gaps in curriculum for on-farm apprenticeship learning and improve professional development for farm and ranch mentors. This 3-year EET project will bring together leaders in the field of agricultural apprenticeship facilitation to develop resources, training materials and suggested "best practices" for two primary audiences: (1) Up to 50 non-profit, educational, or community-based organizations looking to improve facilitation of apprenticeship programs; and (2) Up to 200 commercial or non-profit farms or ranches that host 1,000+ apprentices annually and want to improve educational outcomes for beginning farmers and ranchers. A projected 3,000 other organizations, individuals, institutions, farmers or ranchers will access project resources via the BFRDP clearinghouse, project partners' and advisors' websites, listservs, webinars, and other outreach and social media to start, improve, or expand apprenticeship education.We will accomplish this goal by fostering coordination between diverse apprenticeship training programs; sharing best practices, knowledge and resources; coordinating local and regional training-of-trainer efforts for farm educators and mentors; and fostering peer-to-peer dialogue with similar programs across the country. The project objectives are:Objective 1. Coordinate Project Team: Establish curriculum development teams to coordinate project activities, develop resources and trainings, and track outcomes.Objective 2: Assess Resources: Research, review, and assess existing curricula and identify gaps in education, training, and mentoring resources for apprenticeship programs.Objective 3: Research Formal Apprenticeship Requirements: Work with Department of Labor to identify legal frameworks for industry-specific apprenticeship standards by sector.Objective 4: Develop a Comprehensive Apprenticeship Training "Toolkit," including shared curricula, case studies, industry-specific frameworks, and supplemental resources to educate established and emerging apprenticeship training programs.Objective 5: Disseminate Educational Resources through websites, broad outreach, webinars, a technical assistance referral network, posting to listservs/social media, sharing through the BFRDP clearinghouse and diverse beginning farmer service provider networks.Objective 6: Strengthen Farm/ Ranch Mentor Skills via regional training of trainer sessions.Objective 7: Support a Community of Practice and learning network for apprentice training programs through peer-to-peer sharing, annual conferences, and national/regional collaboration to strengthen both outreach and post-apprenticeship support resources.Objective 8: Track and Evaluate Outcomes: Document and assess the effectiveness of project outputs and develop a framework to evaluate apprenticeship outcomes.