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Agriculture Career Focus Program

Project Dates: May 2008 – March 2009

The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council’s Agriculture Career Focus Program offers employers an opportunity to receive a wage subsidy to hire skilled youth on a 4-10 month placement. The program is available to Canadian businesses across the country conducting work in the primary agriculture sector, including businesses that directly provide service to the on-farm sector. Eligible interns must be post-secondary graduates in agriculture.

Under the program, the Council provides a 33 per cent wage contribution to a maximum of $12,000 per intern for Canadian farm businesses hiring graduates for a minimum of four months or until March 31, 2009.

Program Elements

To be eligible for the program, potential employers and interns must meet specified criteria and fulfill certain responsibilities. These include:

• Employers must develop a formal learning plan for the intern establishing work-related learning objectives that the intern needs to meet during the work placement. Employers must also provide a safe working environment for the intern and provide proof of wages paid and regular reports to the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council.
• Interns must be post-secondary graduates who are out-of-school, unemployed or under-employed and between the ages of 15 and 30. They must be legally entitled to work in Canada and amenable to completing an assessment at the beginning and the end of the internship period.

There is an application process for the program that involves both the potential employer and intern. Employers must provide a brief company biography, employer eligibility form, and employment information form. Interns must send their resume and fill out the participant information form. All forms and learning plan criteria are posted on-line at www.cahrc-ccrha.ca.

Program Benefits

The program is designed to benefit both employers and new graduates. For the employer, it provides a resource base of educated, potential employees and the assistance of wage contributions. For graduates, it offers opportunities that foster long-term employability in the agriculture industry. The program may also provide graduates and Canadian youth with the first critical job opportunity in their field.

Results to Date

Many agriculture businesses have expressed interest in the Agriculture Career Focus Program, and have contacted the Council to learn more about its benefits. To date, nine businesses – located in British Columbia, New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island – have been enrolled in the program and several new collaborations are presently in development.

Successful program recipients include businesses involved in many of agriculture’s diverse commodities and services: organic and traditional fruit, vegetable and crop production; soil, crop and marine environmental management services; trout farming and sturgeon and caviar production; landscaping; and wine production.