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Skills Standards Education can come from the classroom, online, or even learning on the job. But as the famous Greek philosopher Sophocles said: "One must learn from doing the thing: for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try." The CA Foundation feels strongly that a critical part of the educational process is "doing the thing". In 2004 the CA Foundation approached the Department of Labor to begin an Agriculture apprenticeship program similar to the apprenticeship programs found in other professions such as electricians, plumbers, and IT professionals. The foundation is recognized by the DoL as the national skills body for Agriculture and the foundation has the authority to create national skills standards for Agriculture and credential individuals who have completed their apprenticeship with skills certificates issued jointly by CA and the DoL.

How Skills are Obtained and Used

Each Participant in CAEP programs whether they are from the USA or other countries, receive a certificate of completion from CAEP. If they are Americans, each apprentice receives a joint certificate from the DoL and CAEP.

These certificates shows all of the skills that have been validated in-the-field by employer hosts of CAEP. The certificate provides a "2fer" for those participants pursuing academic degrees. A participant receives an educational diploma from their university, (who is accredited by the Department of Education) and a work diploma from CAEP, (who is recognized as a skills authority by the Department of Labor). Together, these two documents provide a strong resume of the qualifications of an individual as a job candidate.

All the skills validated are available online for employers to view as a transcript to demonstrate the performance of each individual . Furthermore, the applicant can post their "skill card" to our hosted job bank for CA employers to search for future employees.