Source: REEDLEY COLLEGE submitted to
TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES IN AGRICULTURE SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY (TOAST)
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1027759
Grant No.
2022-67038-36261
Cumulative Award Amt.
$500,000.00
Proposal No.
2021-09704
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Nov 15, 2021
Project End Date
Nov 14, 2025
Grant Year
2022
Program Code
[A7601]- Agricultural Workforce Training Grants
Project Director
Vizcarra, A.
Recipient Organization
REEDLEY COLLEGE
559 N. REED AVENUE
REEDLEY,CA 93654
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The goal of Training Opportunities in Agriculture Systems and Technology (TOAST) is to expand job-based experiential learning opportunities for working adults and students in the Reedley College (RC) service area. Reedley College is a rural Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) bordered by the Kings River and the largest (300-acre) on-campus college farm in California. Skill development from this project will increase the capacity and responsiveness of RC to develop a new Ag Technology certificate and educate a work-ready labor force that address the needs of service area employers and incumbent workers. Training and coursework will be offered in an academy/workshop style on the College Farm facility or in farm conference training areas. Project objectives include: 1) Create a new short-term certificate in Ag Technology; 2) Establish an Innovation Lab on the College Farm to develop and pilot new in-field technology; 3)Expand educational opportunities in ag technology by connecting colleges with industry organizations, producers, tech companies, and educators via Ag Tech events; and 4) Expand job-based, experiential learning opportunities in ag technology ag management and food safety for working adults and students to enable a work-ready labor force.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
90360993020100%
Knowledge Area
903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;
Goals / Objectives
"The goal of Training Opportunities in Agriculture Systems and Technology (TOAST) is to expand job-based experiential learning opportunities for working adults and students in the Reedley College (RC) service area. Skill development from this project will increase the capacity and responsiveness of RC to educate a work-ready labor force that address the needs of service area employers and incumbent workers."Objective 1 - Create a short-term certificate in Ag Technology. RC will conduct a DACUM with local industry members to identify skills related to the advanced technology currently being used in harvest, packing, and shipping. Incumbent workers in employed by our industry members will participate in the class. Employers will assess how well they are able to utilize technology as they move into tech roles within the organizations.Objective 2 - Establish an Innovation Lab on the College Farm to develop and pilot new in-field technology. RC is working with specific advisory members who will lease 20 acres from the college farm to utilize in the innovation lab. Funds from the lease will help to build a shop. Growers who lease the parcel will have access to the trees and vines located on the 20 acres and other areas of the farm to test new automation technology. Successful outcomes include various machinery being tested on the college farm and incorporated in local harvest or production practices. Additionally, RC agriculture students will have a opportunity to observe new equipment as we as eventually hold part-time internships in the innovation lab.Objective 3 - Expand educational opportunities in ag technology by connecting colleges with industry organizations, producers, tech companies, and educators via an Ag Tech event. The event will connect colleges to industry members that can provide input on ag tech programs. Eventually the event will lead to ag tech advisory groups for colleges which will lead to potential pathway development.Objective 4 - Expand job-based, experiential learning opportunities in ag technology ag management and food safety for working adults and students to enable a work-ready labor force. Identification of employment opportunities, internship opportunities and other work-based -learning opportunities for students in food safety, ag technology, and ag management courses. Increased participation in ag tech, ag management, food safety experiential learning opportunities by students and working adults will be a measure of success in this area.
Project Methods
The workforce training methodologies used for this project include induction, on the job training, e-learning, vestibule training, and mentoring.Induction training practices will include training in the employer's processes, policies and goals with a continuous cycle of training analysis, activity and evaluation. The training goals are to create a positive atmosphere, address job concerns, increase employee comfort level, share organizational values, and share job functions. The induction itself will be conducted within the workplace, using a computer based Online Induction System.Vestibule training will be provided to workers by special instructors. Vestibule training is similar to on-the-job (OJT) training with the exception that it is provided by special instructors, possibly away from the plant or field.On-the-job (OJT) training will be provided by first line supervisors. In-person, classroom training will be provided by trainers identified by the college and partner. Coursework again will be comprised of the skills identified in the workforce skills map. On-the-job training is suitable for teaching those skills that can be learned in a relatively short time. It has the advantage of strongly motivating the trainee to learn and permits the trainee to learn using the actual equipment and in the environment of the job.Mentoring will be also play an important role in the proposed project. The mentoring phase will focus on developing individuals within their current jobs. This method is functional, arising out of the need to ensure that individuals can perform the tasks required to the best of their abilities. Mentoring will also provide both professional and personal support as these workers move into roles with more responsibilities.In addition, vocational ESL (VESL) courses will combine work-related language and career exploration, accelerate language learning, and help individuals make the transition to upper level positions. Providing this coursework will assist local workers in English language acquisition and help employers develop an aligned understanding of technical skills and food safety goals.All courses will be created for noncredit which provides participants with the opportunity to receive credit later on should they decide they want to pursue a degree or certificate in the field. Additionally, noncredit courses receive funding from the state but do not require registration fees from students, so once developed these courses are easily offered and sustainable. Online modules created are sustainable in that they can be self-initiated and done at an at-your-own-pace modality - an instructor is not necessary - and so the course incurs no added cost to the college.

Progress 11/15/22 to 11/14/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Target Audience reached during this period include working adults, single mothers, nonworking adults and former agricultural field workers. All students are Hispanic students. The group included in this second cohort of Ag Technology students is small however they are interested in increasing knowledge and skills in advanced technologies. Specifically, We have two students who are transplants from the LA area and looking for work. One individual had worked in health-care and left during the pandemic. The other is a single mother. Two individuals currently work in packing facilities and are interested in moving up in those areas hoping to learn about data management programs that will be beneficial to their work. Another student has been a farm worker since she was 13 and currently works for a farm labor contractor. She is interested again in data management related to labor/salary. These stories are common with our students who again are all of Hispanic descent. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The Ag Tech event was an opportunity for professional development for industry members, instructors and students. The panels included companies with advanced technology in waste water management, water telemetry, automated water management, automated vehicles, automation in packing facilities and advanced environmental monitoring for food safety. The event was free to the public. Additionally, with the partnership between eight colleges, instructors are recieving professtional development related to training adults and indivduals who have english as a second language. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Reedley College is now a member of a larger consortium of colleges who are working in Ag Technology and aligning curriculum so that individuals can be trained in the broader county and in fact will be trained in a three-county area, Fresno, Madera and Merced. The curriculum and work developed by Reedley College and supported through this grant has provided the baseline information and connections to tech company and growers to get a head start on the larger project. This small one school project has been leveraged to support 7 more colleges. The curriculum from this project has been provided to other colleges through meetings. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period we will work with CSU Fresno's Tech incubation center,Valley Vision,on how to begin our work creating an innovation center on the farm. We will also work on revising the certificate to include drone training. The program plans on connecting our regional certificate to our local certificate. Evenutally these two certificates will lead to a two year degree in ag systems mangagement.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? A DACUM was organized and facilitated in the previous year. It led to the curriculum and certificate that students are currently enrolled in. In the second quarter students connected with local producers who are utilizing advanced technology in their production practices. Additionally students participated in workshops with local agriculture support companies who work with advanced water technology and research. students learned from UCAN Research service researchers and water automation technicians. In the second quarter, Reedley College also held its second annual Ag Tech conference. 75 industry professionals and 20 students participated in the tech event. Panels at the event included, Water technology, Food safety advances and Field and Packing Automation Innovations. The Associate Chief Scientific Officer from Eurofins discussed innovations in Environmental Monitoring. The Vice President of strategy with Netafim discussed innovations in water management. A panel on water innovations included Biofiltro, which purifies water through vermiculture for wineries and other processing facilities that create waste water; WiseConn a water automation company from Chile; Dynamax, which uses telemetry to monitor water in plants; Eco2Mix which lowers pH in water using carbonic acid, which is safer than sulfuric acid, a compound that is widely used in the central valley; and finally Axiom Ag which utilizes biological materials in soil improving soil health and reducing water issues. The automation panel included producers who utilize automation in their operation; Kingman ag a company that retrofits tractors and makes them autonomous; TOMRA foods which manufactures automated sorters for packing facilities and a fully autonomous tractor manufacturer. The ag tech event also included a presentation from the California Farmworker Foundation on their work with farm-workers, colleges and growers. They target farm-workers and growers who need more advanced skill sets in their operation. The group helps identify skills and works with a community college to offer classes to farmworkers so that they can increase skills and move up in their career. We expanded educational opportunities in ag technology by helping to lead a grant appliation with the Economid Development Association to create ag tech courses and a certificate that is going to be utilized regionally. This will increase the number of indivduals who are pursuing an ag technology related certificate and create a pipeline into the Reedley College program.

Publications


    Progress 11/15/21 to 11/14/22

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Target audience reached is in the 20-28 year range, who is currently working in seasonal labor and also attending college. Changes/Problems:This is not a change that we are making, yet, but it is difficult to recruit incumbent workers and easier to work with our current student population who are working seasonally in the agriculture industry while attending college. We still intend to work on recruiting adult workers but the course offerings will have to be much different and the process for registering students creates a difficulty. We need to work with admissions and records to work on a smoother registration process, but this is a more difficult task than we previously understood. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In the previous reporting year the TOAST project held a job interview session where students had an opportunity to apply for jobs with participating industry groups. Several students were hired seasonally to add skill development to knowledge gained in the course. Additionally the food safety course provided student with a HACCP food safety certification which was appropriate for professional development int eh industry. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The program has held three meetings with industry members who have been involved in the development of the curriculum, to provide information on progress as well as ask for help in identifying additional students/incumbent workers to participate in the program. Administrators have been provided with updates during meetings and meetings with noncredit distance education have started in an attempt to develop on the job and specialized training opportunities. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The program is working on the development of an ag technology event for industry members as well as local ag colleges. Additionally the TOAST program and director are participating in a regional project related to ag technology that will expand the scope of the TOAST grant. We are developing an additional certificate and recruiting from a larger audience and working with a local farm worker foundation to extend our reach.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? In this first year Reedley College, though we received no funding in year one, completed Objective 1 - Create a short-term certificate in Ag Technology. RC conducted t a DACUM with local industry members and identified skills related to the advanced technology currently being used in harvest, packing, and shipping. Incumbent workers as well as Reedley college students participated in the class. Employers are working with individuals who had already been hired by their companies as well as students that were hired for seasonal labor as they continue to gain skills on the job.

    Publications