CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – In this agriculture-dependent province, the shortage of skilled farm workers is one of the greatest challenges facing the industry.
Every year, in a province with an estimated 1,400 farm operations, several hundred farm worker positions are open.
“It is a tremendous challenge for our Island industry,” said Alvin Keenan, a potato farmer from Souris, P.E.I., and vice-president of the Prince Edward Island Federation of Agriculture.
“It is perhaps our greatest challenge.”
He is involved in an experimental program that island farmers hope will begin to resolve the challenge.
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Last winter, the first five students graduated from a new provincial agricultural apprenticeship program that includes training at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, time at a provincial truck and heavy equipment operating school, many hours of farm work and co-operation from the provincial environment department and Work- ers’ Compensation Board.
Keenan’s Rollo Bay Holdings potato producing and packing operation employs one of the new graduates.
This year, 14 new students are enrolled in the P.E. I Farm Technician Apprenticeship Program, he said.
They are 18 to 43 and four of them are women.
The students are trained in food safety, farm safety, equipment operation, maintenance and chemical use.
“These people are knowledgeable, have skills, can accept responsibility and have a potential for advancement,” he told the forum.
“They can take ownership of the job and they have a good attitude.”
