Why more P.E.I. farm workers are spending the winter studying

A growing number of farm workers on P.E.I. are spending the winter learning about agriculture, much to the delight of their employers.

Phillip Jennings of Lorne Valley Ranch, a high bush blueberry operation in Cardigan, P.E.I., has seven of his 25 employees in the the P.E.I. farm technician apprenticeship program this winter.

The program, which started in 2009, offers workers who are EI-eligible two blocks of classroom training over two years as well as paid on-the-job training.

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"Those people are learning major farm skills, safety skills," Jennings said.

"They're even able to get their GED, their high school equivalent, through this farm tech program."

The Lorne Valley employees are also getting more specialized training, on top of the farm tech studies.

"We are working to bring in some of the leading professors from colleges in the United States because this is a new industry for this area," Jennings said.

"It's important for us because they could ruin a crop or not make a crop based on improper pruning so we have to do our part to educate."

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Kandis Lannigan started working at Lorne Valley last summer and is now attending the farm apprenticeship program, as well as taking an online course about blueberries.

"I think it's a great opportunity, anybody that can get a hold of it should grab it," Lannigan said.

"It covers everything from safety to all the different types of equipment that we use so I'll be more aware of everything around me, how to use it, how to maintain it, how to be safe around it."

Lannigan describes the training she's doing as an investment in her future.

"It means a future job for me, whether it be this farm or any other farm, it's the future."

Employee retention

Jennings hopes employees such as Lannigan will stick around.

"We're making people better, we're giving people opportunities that have been working lower skilled jobs through all the training that we're doing," he said.

"We're trying to give them a very diverse education so they'll be people to stay with us for the duration."

This year, employees in the berry industry make up the bulk of the 21 participants in the farm tech group.

"When I started (in 2014), we had a lot of potato people coming, this year we've seen a huge number of orchards and low bush blueberries and regular blueberry people coming," said Laurie Loane, executive director of the P.E.I. Agriculture Sector Council.

Updated material

The program material has also been updated to reflect changes in agriculture on P.E.I.

"We're covering off a lot more stuff to do with precision farming which is super important here on the Island and also with our GPS because most farms are using GPS to help with how they plant," Loane said.

Once the workers go back to the farm, they track their apprenticeship hours in a log book. Eventually they write a Blue Seal examthrough the provincial government.There have been 16 Blue Seals so far.

Loane said employers in agriculture on P.E.I. want the program to continue.

"They're continuing to ask their people when they're on a down season like in the winter and laid off that they're coming back and taking a program to up their training skills," she said.

Loane would eventually like the farm apprenticeship program to get Red Seal status, which could happen if the threeother Atlantic provinces adopted P.E.I.'s model.

So would Lorne Valley's Kandis Lannigan.

"It could give us better opportunities in other positions in the company that you're with," Lannigan said.

"It could mean with Red Seal, better income."

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