A student undergoes testing as part of the province's Green Certificate Program. (Supplied)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

prepping for success in agriculture

Green Certificate Program helps students harvest careers in agriculture

Feb 10, 2020 | 10:09 AM

A program that started in 1976 to prepare high school students for careers in agriculture is still going strong.

For the 2019-2020 school year, the Green Certificate Program (GCP) has 1038 students registered across Alberta, including 174 in the Red Deer area.

The program, which offers 16 credits towards graduation, provides an apprenticeship-style environment where students learn on the job under the guidance of experienced farm personnel. It is overseen as well by Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, as well as Alberta Education.

“Trainees select one of the specializations and under the guidance of their trainer, work towards mastering all skills within their training program,” explains Raelene Mercer, the program’s provincial coordinator. “It takes about one year to achieve completion (of the program). In one year, the trainee will experience all of the seasons on a farming operation. Trainees are allowed up to three years to complete their training, if needed.”

Specializations include cow-calf, feedlot, sheep, swine, dairy, field crop, irrigated crop, equine, beekeeping, greenhouse, and poultry; the most popular is cow-calf.

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In central Alberta, the program is administered in partnership with Olds College. Co-ordinator Pamala Church says the program builds confidence and changes the lives of students.

“This program makes them realize that the things they know in Ag are actually worth something, and that the chores they’ve been doing all their lives are actually skills,” says Church, adding that the program’s biggest hurdle is kids thinking it’ll be too difficult.

“There’s a big thick book and three tests, but they’ve already put in the hard work if they’ve worked on a farm, or have an animal. So why not come get the marks and credits that you deserve for what you’ve already been doing for years?”

The Red Deer area has had 229 students from 46 schools graduate from the Green Certificate Program since 2017.

The Green Certificate Program’s importance to the future of Canadian Ag is clear when looking at 2017 statistics compiled by the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council.

The council found more than 2.3 million Canadian jobs that year were related to agriculture, yet 16,500 could not be filled. Furthermore, 47 per cent of agricultural producers could not find enough workers, and 34 per cent of employers reported that no Canadians applied for jobs on their farms.

More information on the Green Certificate Program is at Alberta.ca.