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NY Dairy Specialist Apprenticeship: Opportunity to preview the program

Dairy is facing ongoing challenges in workforce development. As one solution to this, a state approved dairy apprenticeship was recently created. An apprenticeship combines hands-on work experiences with classroom instruction that leads toward valuable job skills and a recognized certification. Any farm in NY is eligible to participate in this program. The goal is to create a viable training pathway to attract and grow employees into middle management careers in dairy farms. There are various state funds available to help support this program.hoof trimming

As a way to introduce this program, any employee with interest can enroll in pre-apprenticeship opportunities. Enrollment creates no commitment to participate in the formal apprenticeship, this is designed to help encourage the pathway into dairy. Recently, pre-apprenticeship funds were made available for any female employee who MAY be interested in pursuing the dairy apprenticeship. These funds can be used to pay the registration fee for female employees to attend the Northeast Dairy Management Conference in Syracuse on March 9-10, 2022.

There are several requirements to access the funds:

  1. Employee must LIVE OR WORK in the following counties: Broome, Chenango, Delaware, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Montgomery, Oneida, Onondaga, Otsego, Schoharie, St. Lawrence, Tioga, and Tompkins counties.
  2. Employee must be female.
  3. There is no commitment to pursue the dairy apprenticeship-these are pre-apprenticeship funds-but it would be best if this was a manager or middle manager that you may want to consider for the apprenticeship program.

To enroll, please contact: Sommer Edwards, Pre-Apprenticeship WANTO coordinator, sedwards@working-solutions.org

For more information about the new dairy apprenticeship please contact:

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New Resource! Example NY Employee Handbook

We’re introducing a new resource on Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development’s Employee Handbook page. We’ve posted an example employee handbook customized for New York farm employers. Starting with a Michigan State example from 2014, our team worked to develop an example farm employee handbook that New York farm employers can use either as a starting point to develop their own handbook or as a tool for comparison with an existing handbook. There was much to add, including information about sexual harassment prevention, sick leave, and other matters. We collaborated with Attorneys Michael Sciotti and Megan Bahas from the Barclay Damon firm in Syracuse to help make sure the handbook was current with existing laws. Of course, this example handbook is provided for educational purposes only, employers are responsible for ensuring that their handbook is compliant with state and federal laws and regulations.

To access the example:

  1. Click on Employee Handbook. This will open the file as a preview in the Box file storage site.
  2. Click the “Download” button in the upper right corner of the page.
  3. Typically, the downloaded file will appear at the bottom of your screen. You can then open the file, edit, and save on your computer.

When you commit to preparing and distributing a written employee handbook it’s important to follow through and implement policies consistently. You must also plan to update the handbook on a regular basis, at least annually, to make sure it is accurate and compliant with law. I’ve seen situations where an employer copied an old printed handbook for many years, unfortunately, legal changes in the course of time caused many of those written policies to be out of compliance with current law. The resources we provide can help you get started, but it’s always a good idea to have an employee handbook reviewed by appropriate legal counsel before putting it into effect.

Special thanks to Lucas Smith, a senior in Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Lucas has worked with our program for several years and he did a great deal of work on this project!

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