The Future of Ag Education is Blossoming at Merced College

By Luciana Chavez Special to Merced College Merced College continues to innovate in agricultural education as the Fall 2024 semester gets underway, led by a new certificate program that promises to be a boon for students and for the ag industry as a whole. The new Agrifood Technology and Engineering Collaborative (AgTEC), the arrival of Competency-Based Education (CBE) and the soon-to-be-built Ag Innovation Center at Merced College will be funded by $15 million from the state and $27 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration Build Back Better Regional Challenge. The goal is to create 8,400 job-ready, “upskilled” agricultural workers within the region, and, over four years, increase their wages by 60%. “We feel great,” Director of Ag Innovation Cody Jacobsen said. “We have so many more opportunities for students to grow and learn skills to put them so far ahead of everyone else in the marketplace. We’re talking skills, equipment, facilities, all of it. There’s no other place in the U.S. that will have what we will have on campus.”

Competency-Based Education

Competency-based education (CBE) is a groundbreaking modality that allows students to show their expertise with certain job skills that they’ve already been using for years, allowing more experienced students to move through the curriculum at their own pace. Also, they can train on other skills needed by industry employers. “Merced College is leading the way in CBE,” said Dean of Career Technical Education Bryan Tassey. “Everyone else (in the California Community College system) has had plans for it. We’re the only ones doing it.” Currently 25 students are training in five areas—agriculture technical literacy, agriculture systems, agricultural safety, equipment operation and configuration, and workplace effectiveness. They’ll be honing 14 different competencies in total. Students are working to earn a 12-unit Ag Systems Certificate. They’ll also receive a modified Merced College transcript. It will act as proof, legitimizing skills and expertise, to potential employers. The college envisions the certificate evolving into an associate’s degree and then a B.S. degree. The noncredit CBE classes are free, as are all noncredit courses at Merced College. Enrollment is open. Students can come and go as needed. That will accommodate the harvest-driven schedules of seasonal workers.

The program has initially enrolled farm workers and previously incarcerated people recommended through Restore Merced. But there are also traditional college students, high school students, contruction workers recuperating from injuries and some graduate engineering students from UC Merced. In developing the program, the college worked with some of the largest employers in the Central Valley—Harris Ranch, Blue Diamond, Fowler Packing Company, The Wonderful Company, Live Oak Farms and De Jager Farms—to identify needed skills for employees. The employer partners have also guaranteed current and future employees that it will raise the wages (50 cents to $2 per hour) for those who earn the Ag Systems Certificate. Some will also be guaranteed a faster track to becoming supervisors. “They sat with our faculty and said, ‘This is what we wish our current employees knew,’ and we built the curriculum from there,” Jacobsen said. “We have the backing from the industry because they believe in this program.” Student Angel Cortez, 43, worked in a grocery store back home in Mexico City. Here in the U.S., he has worked various laborer jobs, including on a chicken farm. After seeing internet ads promoting the CBE certficate program, Cortez enrolled last month. He wanted to have more options for employment. Hee works through the online training every afternoon and now his confidence is soaring. “For example, I’m learning to use the computer a lot more,” Cortez said in Spanish. “Just gaining more knowledge has been great. Mainly I’m here because I want to find a better job. Everything about the program motivates me, because everything is new and interesting. I’ve even started learning how to operate a forklift.” Professor of Agriculture Karl Montague says the program will add several students at the end of September. They’ll take as many students as possible. “They’re all looking for a brighter future,” Montague said. “The part I’m enjoying most is seeing our students looking forward so much to being in college.” Currently students are working on units together and chronologically. They study online and also come to work or test on campus Monday-Thursday from 2-6 p.m. “Eventually we should reach a point where I could have people working on 14 different modules at once,” Montague said. “I’m excited to see that, because it will show the program is doing what it’s supposed to do. CBE is all about the individual and the pace at which they want to learn.”

Innovation Continues

In mid-October, Merced College will break ground on the 22,000-square-foot AgTEC Innovation Center. The center will include state-of-the-art meat processing, nut processing and fruit and vegetable processing facilities where students will become experts in the latest technology and machinery while preparing goods for sale. “We’re at the forefront of all of that automation,” Jacobsen said. “Training students there will give them a clear path to employment.” The facility will also have a commercial kitchen and retail market that will sell student-grown, student-produced and student-marketed products year-round. President Chris Vitelli told Jacobsen about the Ag Innovation job last year: “It’s going to be like flying a plane while you build it.” This is serious but exciting work for Merced College. Next, the college will implement CBE practices with its child development program in 2025. Merced College is working with equally committed CCC partners. The college now collaborates on CBE with Reedley, Madera, Fresno City, Clovis, West Hills Lemoore and West Hills Coalinga. Tassey says students and the institutions can now take advantage of better reciprocity. If curriculm matches from school to school within the CCC, students can then move between schools without losing time or credit. “For the first time in my 15-year career in higher education, I’ve seen all seven schools agree on the exact same content we’re teaching within CBE,” Tassey said. “We want to tell students, ‘You can travel with this program.’ That’s the ultimate goal. The larger grant has created this stronger partnership for us to do even more things in a different way. The end result will be unique and super cool.”