Swine Jobs School Registration Continues for Fall Session
8/18/09
Contact: Eileen Gianiodis
517-432-1555, ext. 177
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Students interested in training for available jobs in the mid-Michigan area should register now for Swine Jobs School. Classes begin Sept. 8, 2009. Applications are available online at http://web1.msue.msu.edu/msue/aoe/swine/swineindex.html.
The program’s focus will be on students who have varied educational backgrounds and are looking for new employment opportunities. Swine Jobs School is designed to teach the skills needed to work with pigs as well as teach job and interpersonal skills needed for employment.
“Swine Jobs School will provide a pool of trained potential employees,” said Gerald May, Extension specialist in Gratiot County. “The program will help students looking for employment to find good paying jobs. It also provides producers with employees who have some training.”
The first 10 sessions will be a combination of classroom instruction and on-farm supervised training. The first two weeks of the school will be held in Ithaca, Mich., and all participants will be expected to attend classes there. During this portion of the program, students will receive technical training and supervised work experience in breeding, farrowing, nursery and finishing phases of production and feed processing.
To reinforce the on-farm supervised training, Swine Jobs School includes 12 weeks of on-farm work experience. During this portion of the program, students will work a minimum of 20 hours a week for 12 weeks on a swine farm in their community. Students will rotate through all phases of the farm, gaining experience in each area of production. The areas of production emphasized during the on-farm work experience will be flexible to meet the interests of the students and the needs of the host farm.
The final phase of the program is comprised of further instruction in practical areas of pork production. The classroom sessions, conducted once a week during the 12-week on-farm work experience, will include sessions on feeding and nutrition, keeping and using production records, farm communication, swine disease and treating disease, and ventilation and farm maintenance.
The Swine Jobs School will be taught by Michigan State University Pork Team members. It is supported by MSU Extension; the National Pork Board; Circle K Family Farms, LLC; Lafayette Pork Production, LLC; the Gratiot Isabella RESD and Alma High School VocAg program. This pilot program has been funded through the North Central Risk Management Education Center.
For more information about Swine Jobs School, check out the Web site at http://web1.msue.msu.edu/msue/aoe/swine/swineindex.html or contact May at (989) 875-5233.
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