TABER, Alta. — Fresh shavings cover the floor of this classroom in a barn on a farm near Taber.
Some of the time the Alberta high school students enrolled in AGR 3000, an agricultural safety course, listen to instructors and take notes at their tables. At other times, they examine sites and farm equipment where accidents and injuries can occur and are instructed in safety measures.
The students were participating in the Green Certificate Program this month, said instructor Becky Domolewski, co-ordinator of the program in southern Alberta.
“(AGR 3000) is a farm safety course that the students will all take and this way, when they go to do their Green Certificate and they’re working at home on the farm, they have that training that they’re safe and they’re going to keep themselves safe working around that machinery and while they do their training.”
Green Certificate is a program for high school students to learn various farm production techniques through direct experience.
A Level 1 Green Certificate re-quires students to take three courses and amass 16 credits.
AGR 3000 can provide one of those credits. It must be completed to qualify for the Green Certificate course.
Instructed by Domolewski and Coalhurst, Alta., teacher Ben Swen, the course covered topics that included hazard assessment, job safety and the law, managing confined spaces, hazardous materials and emergency response planning.
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Fire, electrical and ladder safety are also part of the course.
“We can set up examples to show kids where things are safe as well as give them the training so we know when they leave here that they’re going to be safe,” Domolewski said.
Ag for Life delivered the 15-unit program.
