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Identifying On-Farm Occupations

Project Dates: September 2008 – September 2010

Having the right skills and knowledge to be successful in today’s workplace has never been more important. Canadian industries compete on a global scale – and employees need up-to-date and leading-edge skills to ensure that their employers remain competitive.

Defining occupational standards is a recognized method to help Canadians identify and acquire the skills that they need to perform competently in their workplace. Occupational standards benefit both employers and employees; they help companies and individuals plan their skills development and maintain levels of competencies, and they bring national recognition to career pathways.

Canada’s national occupational classification system is a standardized way of describing and understanding the nature of a particular field of employment to statisticians, labour market analysts, career counsellors, employers, and individual job seekers. This system is used to examine labour market trends, guide policy decisions, and develop systems for training, recruiting and job matching.

Over the past decade and longer, Canada’s agriculture sector has experienced difficulties recruiting and retaining qualified employees. Undefined careers and occupational skills in agriculture have contributed to this problem. Consultations with the Canadian Agricultural Education Network have also revealed that there is limited knowledge of the national occupational standards system amongst the education community and the agriculture sector.

The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council’s Identifying On-Farm Occupations project seeks to identify key on-farm occupations and develop national occupational standards to better define career pathways and raise awareness of the skills required for workers on today’s farms.

Project Elements

The project will identify and define occupational groups and core skills specific to the on-farm sector across key commodity groups. This information will be used to develop a sector-specific grid of on-farm occupations and skill levels by commodity group. The grid will be analyzed to identify any areas where occupational standards and essential skills profiles need to be developed in the future to improve the national occupational classification system. It will also be analyzed to determine whether there is a need for additional training programs for agricultural workers and youth entering the workforce.

Expected Results

The Identifying On-Farm Occupations project will result in an industry-validated, sector-specific listing of on-farm occupations and skills-levels by commodity groups. It will include recommendations on the occupations that require essential skills and standards development, which may direct future projects by CAHRC.

Over the short term, this project will help farm employers recruit and retain long-term employees in all key commodities, and recognize career advancement opportunities. It will also help present, potential and future agriculture employees plan their career paths and gain selected skill sets. In addition, it will help educators address training program gaps.

Over the long term, the results of the project will be used by the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council to generate greater awareness of agriculture employment opportunities and career paths for youth, workers, and students. They will also set the stage for identifying key skill sets for further occupational analysis and standards development.