Job Posting – 5 mins

Mentoring an apprentice is both challenging and rewarding, and you don’t really know how much until you get into it. Apprentices can be also be surprising. Gabe Brown tells a great story in his book Dirt to Soil about an apprentice who fixed a leaking water pipe with a zucchini–inventive!

Host farm mentors often come to the program worried that they might need to better hone the communication skills, teaching skills or management to support an apprentice. These are totally understandable worries as you step into a new role. But you are not taking this journey alone!

What you can expect from us at Young Agrarians:

  • We will be there for you! Your coordinator is just a text, email or call away.
  • We’ll provide some training on being a mentor.
  • We will promote your apprenticeship to applicants.
  • We’ll help you with insurance requirements, employment contracts and wage subsidies as needed.
  • We’ll check-in with you to see how things are going. If you are having any struggles or worries, we can brainstorm with you and help you to overcome them.
  • We’ll also get you connected to other mentors taking the same journey as you.
  • We’ll organize farms tours and online meet ups for apprentices to supplement their learning on your farm.

What you can expect from your apprentices:

  • Participation in the online orientation and the in-person weekend. They will meet with their fellow apprentices and work through some of those start-up jitters.
  • Attendance at the 2 – 4 (or more!) farm tours at other host mentor farms.  Sometimes it can be hard for apprentices to leave the farm especially during the busy season, but trust us, these are huge opportunities for the apprentices to learn from others and bring back new perspectives to your farm.
  • Help us plan a farm tour at your farm along with you. This farm tour will be attended by other apprentices and community members.
  • Track their learning. We’ll be providing you with a Skills Checklist to use with your apprentice but we also encourage them to find their own way to record weather, hours worked, activities, observations, learning goals and questions that arise.
  • Provide a final reflection at the end of your apprentices.

What we expect of you:

  • A welcome space to live and learn for your apprenticeship placement.
  • Follow labour laws, have a clear employment contract and have Worker’s Compensation for your apprentice.
  • Attend the online Host Farm Mentor Orientation and Communication Training session organized by YA
  • Work to grow the competence and confidence of your apprentice
  • Be active in communicating with the YA Coordinators.
  • Reach out if there are any challenges concerning the apprenticeship
  • A meaningful experience where you learn just as much as the apprentice.

The full list of program expectations is found in the Host Farm Mentor MOU.

Experiences of past host farm mentors:

“I love to share our passion about regenerative agriculture and some of the knowledge we have accumulated. I hope to inspire the next generation of farmers and start them on their journey a few steps ahead from where we started.”  – Donovan Kitt, The Homestead

 

“It helped provide structure and support for the hiring process and took some of the workload off of reaching applicants. The matchmaking process seems to work fairly well. It was great to feel part of a larger mentor group that we could connect with. We liked the mentor training sessions leading up to the start of the program. It was great to have the opportunity for our apprentice to lead a tour on our farm and for apprentices to gather with each other.” – Michelle Schram, Fresh Roots Farm