(Submitted photo/Cumberland College)

By Paid Partnership

Ag Sciences

Cumberland College’s Agriculture Sciences Certificate balances students’ school and work life

Mar 9, 2021 | 8:52 AM

Strong, well-established, out-of-province agriculture education closer to home.

That’s what Cumberland College is bringing to its Melfort campus with the Agriculture Sciences Certificate program again in July 2021, after a very successful first offering of the program during the 2020-2021 academic year. Even with the many challenges brought on by the COVID pandemic, including having to retool the schedule for the 2020 program, the first offering of the program can me marked a definite success that provides a solid foundation for future offerings of the Agriculture Certificate program.

Cumberland College’s Chair of Post-secondary Education, Jeff Fisher, said the certificate is in partnership with Lakeland College in Vermillion, Alta. The emphasis is on crop production with students learning everything from plant science and field crops to weed and herbicide management, pesticide applications, and even going into areas of business records and reporting as it applies to agriculture.

“We identified that some students were traveling out of province to do schooling for agriculture, and we thought what we would want to do is give them the option to do that a little closer to home,” Fisher said. “We’re going to offer the program on a different schedule than Lakeland does on campus. We’re hoping that will make it more desirable for our students and also make it a little more manageable for students who are also working in the agriculture industry.

“We might have a student who’s fresh out of high school who is very involved in the family farm, but at the same time wants to do some specific certificate training to increase their knowledge of farming.”

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Instead of traditional September to December and January to April semesters, Fisher explained Cumberland College’s Agriculture Sciences Certificate schedule works around the busy harvest and seeding seasons. Semester one is five weeks from July 13 to Aug. 13 and then students will have until Oct. 12 off to work harvest, whether it be on their family farm, as a farm labourer, or other work in the agriculture industry.

“We recognize harvest may not be done by that time, depending on the year, but we’re trying to give as much time as we possibly can,” Fisher said.

Following harvest, students will pick up a 10-week second semester from Oct. 12 to Dec. 17, begin a six-week third semester from Jan. 11 to Feb. 18 after the holiday season, and start the final nine-week semester from March 1 to April 29. Fisher said the schedule frees students right before seeding season.

After year one, students have two paths to choose from that can lead them to success in the agriculture industry.

If students want to continue after receiving their Agriculture Sciences Certificate at Cumberland College, they can transfer into Lakeland College’s diploma program in Vermillion with all first-year credentials under their belt. In turn, the diploma program could also scaffold toward Lakeland’s newly established Bachelor of Agriculture Technology degree program.

However, if students want Cumberland College to be their exit point, they can leave with their certificate and open doors to future employers with the knowledge they received.

“We find a lot of our industry partners are now looking for more than just someone who can come and run a combine for a few weeks,” Fisher said. “Somebody who has some background, training, and prior knowledge to come be an asset to their family farm.

“It’s not just a program for people who have background knowledge in agriculture. It’s also a program that can give those people who are maybe looking for work in the agriculture industry an opportunity to add to their tool kit of knowledge and give them the opportunity to work on a farm. Or maybe with some other area in the agriculture industry; whether it be machinery dealers or grain buyers.”

“I’m excited to grow this program from the foundation up”, added Fisher. “Now that the program has established its roots, the sky’s the limit. Solid instruction, combined with great guest speakers and interactive hands-on experiences make this a program that should appeal to a wide variety of prospective students, both now and well into the future.”

Fisher said most of the gear and equipment needed for labs and field work will be provided by Cumberland College as part of the students’ tuition.

For more information on this program click here.

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*This content was created by northeastNOW’s commercial content division.