Apprenticeships

Sustainable Vegetable Production Registered Apprenticeship

The Sustainable Vegetable Production Apprenticeship (SVP) connects experienced vegetable farmers with aspiring vegetable growers and future farmers for hands-on training and learning opportunities in and out of the fields of North Carolina. The SVP Apprenticeship is a registered apprenticeship program with ApprenticeshipNC under the NC Community College program.

Apprentices complete more than 2,000 hours of hands-on training as paid employees of a registered farm over the course of two growing seasons. During this time, they are supported in at least 180 hours of related instruction through approved courses, conferences, and learning opportunities.

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Boots on the Ground: North Carolina’s Veteran Farmer Registered Apprenticeship

As North Carolina’s first registered agricultural apprenticeship program for military veterans, Boots on the Ground: NC Veteran Farmer Apprenticeship aims to increase the pool of trained agricultural workers for management and entrepreneurial positions at farming operations in North Carolina. Registered with ApprenticeshipNC, the state apprenticeship coordinating body, this apprenticeship includes both hands-on job training and related technical instruction.

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Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship

The Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) is the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) Education Coordinator for North Carolina. 

DGA links current and aspiring dairy farmers and provides a structure of support for the transfer of knowledge, skills, and farms from one generation to the next. Apprentices complete more than 3700 hours of on-the-job training and related instruction over two years. Participants may start with a shorter internship to make sure the program is a good fit.

Using the model of education that has prepared skilled workers in the trades for more than a century, DGA combines work-based training with related instruction for the federally recognized occupation of “Dairy Grazier.” A dairy grazier is a farmer who uses managed grazing. In managed grazing systems the majority of farm acres are planted to perennial forages and cows are rotated through paddocks of high quality grasses that are allowed to rest and regrow. Using this cost effective method, dairy graziers are able to restore natural resources, produce high quality milk, and remain profitable in both conventional and value-added markets.

DGA partners with established grazing dairy farmers, universities, community- based organizations, and other stakeholders to deliver high quality work-based training in managed-grazing dairy production in multiple states.The program is federally registered with the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration.

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