Photo courtesy of Envato Elements
From staff reports
Workers in the Salinas Valley of California can now take advantage of free college classes (non- credit) that are intended to help them gain new skills for working in the agriculture industry, which should lead to higher wages.
Hartnell College has received a $260,000 grant from the Bank of America that will be used for courses that focus on agricultural production, processing and manufacturing. In addition, there will be hands-on training where participants will earn $15-18 an hour for up to 10 hours a week. The goal of the training is to lead workers to higher paying, full-time job opportunities in roles such as food safety technicians, human resource technicians, frontline agriculture supervisors and small-scale organic farm managers.
The Ag Tech Workforce Initiative grant is a three-year grant that began last month. It is anticipated workers will be paid upwards of $29 per hour through the training they receive from Hartnell College.