At 22, Brad Toews knew he had to get an education, but after two years of struggle due to the BSE crisis, the Saskatchewan rancher didn’t know how he was going to raise the tuition for school.
Luckily, when his mother was browsing the internet, she discovered a new federal-provincial program designed to pay farmers to go to school.
Under the Canadian Agricultural Skills Service program, Toews will receive $16,000 toward his tuition, books and living costs for a two-year diploma at Olds College.
“The money was quite crucial for me to go to school,” said Toews of Watrous, Sask., who raises cattle with his parents.
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“I knew I had to go to school, but if I had to pull money out of the ranch, it would be tough to make it work.”
His family raises about 500 cows, has a finishing feedlot, is a dealer for liquid supplement and fencing and does custom fencing and grass seeding.
“It’s definitely a huge supplement,” he said of the program.
The goal of the program is to help new and established farm families develop new skills to improve their farm practices and increase family income.
Farmers and their spouses with a net farm income of $45,000 or less are eligible for money to put toward formal college courses or less formal workshops and short courses.
There is about $13 million available to Alberta farm families over the next three years. In Saskatchewan, about $22 million is available and Manitoba has $6.5 million. Across Canada, $55 million is available over five years.
Toews said as part of his funding, he sat down with a counsellor and created a plan to focus on the training he would need to best suit his role in the family farm.
He enrolled in Olds College’s two-year agriculture production diploma course with a beef major.
Educational costs covered under the program include up to two years at a community college or other courses for mechanics, welding, accrual accounting, general educational development and academic upgrading and workshop or field day fees.
The money could also be used for travel costs, dependent care and other allowances while travelling for education.
