Music.
On our first part of the morning show today, we're talking about national farm worker jobs program and career coach Rob Olers in the studio today to talk about this.
Good morning, Rob.
Good to have you in here today.
Good morning, Phil.
Thank you.
Tell us a little bit about what you do and your focus here in Richland Center.
Yeah.
So, um, you know, my office is right here in Richland Center and I, uh, I work for you most and I operate underneath the national farm worker jobs program.
It's a pretty cool.
It's all grant funded through the workforce innovation and opportunity act And is what we do is we identify farm workers and we try to Further the education a lot of times like through schooling we can pay for tuition that type of thing we also help with like career coaching and job placement It's
It's it's it's really really cool and it's again if it's focused on the farm workers, right?
So a participant would have to have at least half of their time or money come from farm work But we have some some flexibility within the language of how we define farm worker
It
has they have to deal with the raw product So even someone just like bailing hay like a senior in high school that bails hay during the summer if that's most of their time
in the workforce, then they could qualify for the program because they're dealing with that raw product.
So through that then, we would try to, if they want to pursue education in anything from agriculture, forestry, manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, healthcare, construction, we, as long as they're within our counties, which we operate in 51 counties, then we will pay for two years of school tuition within those fields for that farm worker.
this is very big for our state because it relies so much on agriculture robin
absolutely you know and and that that's the focus and it really identifies that you know just how important those farm workers are um i think like right now uh to that because we don't necessarily want to take people away from that farm work i think we have
This is a rough number, about 15, maybe 20 participants right now at Southwest Tech, and a lot of those are going to school for things like power and things like that to further their education and farming.
Somebody is in the program too.
It's really hard to get away because you got to work and pay the bills, but are there some opportunities, some night classes and things like that?
Absolutely.
I mean, as long as it falls underneath those categories, we can help with that too.
What's really cool on top of like up to two years of tuition assistance,
We can also provide financial assistance for things like food, transportation, fuel costs, housing, school resources.
If you have a class that is requiring books and tools, we can also provide the financial assistance for that.
In addition, people that go to the farm workers that go to school within those fields, we can also even pay them a stipend just for attending class.
What about the Hispanic population?
How can you help them or serve them?
So I was recently, this was in a different county, but because we work closely with the Department of Workforce Development, and I went up to a migrant housing that was on site at, I believe it was Lakeside Foods, through a gentleman with the Department of Workforce Development, and we met with all the migrant workers up there, because we can also provide them services, like such as food and gas assistance, that type of stuff.
You've kind of done this all over the state so far.
You're recently up in the Fox Valley area, I believe, aren't you?
Yep.
I spent some time in St.
Croix, because like I said, we have participants in Southwest Tech, which is really close to this area here.
I know we have...
Next week I'm meeting with some potential participant here at the office for Southwest Tech But like up in st.
Croix County, we don't have that much of a presence So I spent some time in st.
Croix at the tech schools at the high schools meeting with some individuals I got to go attend a chamber of commerce meeting and they showcased one of the local businesses up there It was angels pet store and she had a macaw at the meeting.
So that was really cool
First time ever in person like that to see a macaw then or
For me, yeah.
It would be for me.
Yeah, you
see them on cartoons all the time, right?
And that
type of
thing, but no, it was really cool.
So we're talking about the workers.
What can you do to support employers,
Rob?
Yup.
So for employers, there's a couple of different things we can do.
One is, again, as long as it identifies farm workers and falls underneath those education categories that we discussed, we can actually assist with on-the-job training.
where we won't pay for all the undeserved training, but we'll pay for a part of it.
Again, through this grant, everything's federally funded.
In addition to that, because so many of our participants are in school as part of the program, once they graduate their two-year tech school or they get their certificate, whatever it is that they're going for,
Now we have a participant that's looking for a job who has the qualifications to do the work.
So that's where we like to partner with employees as well, you know, employers just to help them fill their candidate pool because we have access to recently, you know, qualified people that want to further their career.
Lots of farms have trouble staffing that kind of thing.
Are you able to kind of connect?
You know kind of like a help wanted thing and direct people where there might be work,
you know, absolutely That's more of the holistic part of the program is in addition to all these direct financial services and supports that we provide We do like to network not only with you know the high schools and the tech schools like I said But within the community as well whether it's other nonprofits or other farms and just kind of get us all connected with
because I think that the more we talk and the more we share our observations, our needs, whatever struggles we might be experiencing, that's when we can really start overcoming those obstacles and those barriers.
Some of the new equipment too is just unbelievable.
I mean, it has to be, you know, it has to be a lot of training involved to run some of this stuff.
Absolutely.
No, I mean, not, I mean, I know I couldn't do it,
right?
I know I
could.
Very big pieces of equipment, um, you know, potential dangers, that type of thing.
And, you know, that's where we can get these, we can help people become qualified and competent to run those equipments that they can benefit themselves.
They grow their own career.
And like you mentioned, then they can help those help farm workers that need that.
those people outside.
Definitely.
Um, eligibility requirements.
Could you go over those again, Rob?
Absolutely.
Um, so, um, more than 50% of your income or your work time has to come from farm work during a six month period within the last two years.
So we can pull that from, we can kind of slide the time scale over the course of those two years to determine that eligibility.
Um, and again, it is also income or time.
So there's some flexibility within that.
Um, one thing that the program
allows for that I think is really cool is again like if you're a senior in high school graduating this year, you know you want to go to tech school, can qualify for the program, we get to look at only that seniors income and they don't include their parents.
When determining income eligibility, which I know is really cool a lot of programs stuff like that They look at kind of like the whole family's income and then that could potentially disqualify those students from those programs The NFJP national farm worker jobs program only looks at the income of the participant that's interested
That's kind of unique.
I think
yeah, it is you know, and I when I first learned about that myself I thought that was just really exciting it
I feel through that we reduce a potential barrier for those youths that are interested in pursuing, you know, their career once they're out of high school.
In addition to that, you just have to be legally authorized to work in the United States.
And if you are a male applicant that's 18 or older, you do have to be registered with selective services, which is just essentially, you know, you'd be draft eligible.
Go to the post office.
You can do it online, actually.
Can you do it
online?
Yep, real simple and easy.
um, talked with a couple recently, um, eligible participants that weren't signed up.
Um, and then we just tell them like, Hey, part of the program, we do have to be signed up for this and we give them the website address and then they're able to do it real quick and easy if they want.
What are some documents needed to be a part of this?
Yeah, pretty standard documentation, um, photo identification.
whether it's state ID, driver's license, that type of thing.
A social security card, we don't need to keep that on file, but I do just need to physically see it, because obviously then I have to use that social security number for a lot of government tracking and that type of thing.
In addition to that, we need proof of farm work and proof of income from the farm work.
We've got some participants, you know, fresh out of high school where they worked on the farm, but it was just for their parents, right?
So their payment was room and board.
For those things, we actually have documents then that we can send over where we send one over to the participant, the youth, and say, hey, just
you know sign this form that says that what you're telling us is true and then we would send one over in this situation to the parents and just say hey sign this form just attesting that everything that we're hearing here is true and accurate and that'll satisfy our needs if.
They don't have that proof of income, like a pay stub type thing.
Yeah, work history is a little harder to find if you're just working on the farm.
Absolutely.
Like that for your parents.
Yep.
And that's what we're finding out too, even the ones that don't just, you know, work for their parents in those situations.
A lot of farm work is paid, you know, it's cash.
It's, you know, the, you're.
doing some work for a summer, you know, you're working at one farm for a few weeks, they need help another farm for a few weeks.
It's not necessarily that standard nine to five job.
So yeah, there's a lot of times where we, we have to help them with that documentation a little bit more.
There are a lot of educational opportunities with high schools where they're, they're going to school for part of the day and they're, they're working, you know, the second part of the day as
well.
Not only for, um, the, the programs, you know, that, that will.
go from high school to work.
Like, I was in that program.
When I was in high school, for example, we actually have participants now that are in programs from high school that give him a head start in college.
One of our participants in Southwest Tech again is, I think he just turned 18, but he's technically still a senior, but half his time is spent at the tech school already starting his schooling, which I think is really cool too, helps give those students that want that a head start.
So you're looking for some grants and things like that.
You're probably also able to direct them towards scholarships as well, aren't you?
Through the career coaching part, absolutely.
You know, we, again, just through that networking piece, as a career coach, you know, I'm able to help them with scholarships or job training, that type of thing.
One tool we use is the Onet.
help identify skill sets for individuals and you know based off that skill set what type of job would be the best fit for you and what's the outlook of those jobs and
the future you know you kind of look about 10 years down the road you kind of wonder you know where we'll be in terms of workers and workers needed and that kind of thing
absolutely you know and I think
I think we see it even now a little bit.
It can be difficult for employers to find the right employee.
It can be difficult for that potential employee to find the right job, especially with so much information that we receive constantly just through the way our technology is now.
And I think that this program here can help just clear a lot of that air now.
And I think then for the future to your point of how we don't quite know the outlook of it,
I think that the groundwork we do now, especially from this program, can impact that future uncertainty by, you know, making sure that specifically youths, high school kids have those skills, have that training, and then they can
you know fit that need for employment and that the employee needs down the road in the future.
Another expense is a CDL sometimes.
Can you direct them in that?
100%
you know something like a CDL definitely qualifies under transportation and warehousing.
We are one of our current employer partners.
I'm probably going to get the name wrong.
I want to say ATS.
It's based out of Sun Prairie.
And that's exactly what they do.
It's a school that provides CTL training certification.
We're partnering with them.
I think I've got one or two participants at that school currently that we are funding.
You're just trying to build awareness here.
Do you have some goals in mind by the next year or so that you'd like to see?
Yeah, you know, throughout throughout the year, I would just like to raise awareness.
I hear when I go out networking to meet with people and talk to people, one thing I hear is, you know,
I've never heard of UMOS.
What does UMOS do?
What is the NFJP?
So I'm hoping that by this, we can at least get that foundational knowledge that, hey, we are out here.
We have this federally funded grant that we want to use to help the youth.
Hopefully, we have a stronger presence in Richland County as well as throughout the state.
I know that here in Richland County itself, there's two career coaches, one besides myself, and her name is Will de Doerr.
Um, and she's been with you most for gosh, I think it's like seven or eight years.
Um, just done a great job.
Most of the clients that we have in this area is obviously because of her work.
Um, and she's done great things and we're both located, um, right at the, uh, Southwest tech outreach center there, right across from the Dario in town.
When someone comes to meet you, what's the, the normal process that you go through, Ron?
Yeah.
So there's, it starts out with like a screening process.
So we asked some very, um,
just very base questions to determine if this person could be eligible for the program so we identify things like income and job history first and then through that that's usually enough for us to determine if they could qualify and then from there we start what we call the intake process which is more getting that documentation some more of those you know like
personal questions, that type of thing, because, again, this all has to be reported and tracked for the government because it is federally funded.
We talked a lot about high school and college age.
What about somebody older?
worker that wants to kind of get back in the workforce.
Absolutely.
You know, we would, um, this program can help them as well.
Um, the only reason I guess right now I'm focused more on the youth in the high school is based off of research and demographic that seems to be the higher need.
Um, but in the event that, you know, we get someone that maybe like myself, I'm 40 and going to school, right?
Career change.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So, you know, if, if there's other folks out there that are looking at that same type of thing that, you know, maybe, um,
someone for example it happens got laid off from their job and they're like you know what maybe I want to be a drug driver then they could be 30 40 50 years old and that's someone there's no age limit to the program
as people are listening who do you hope responds you know employers or people looking for work or kind of getting into the agricultural career
yeah you know I'm hoping that um that this message reaches out to like local high schools that type of thing as well as you know
any type of farming area that just maybe has a question or a need or just wants to connect.
I know you can contact me at 414-852-0004 and we could have a conversation and or um
If you're a school in the area, whether it's high school, tech school, and you want Mayor Wilda to come and just kind of talk to your class about it, I know Wilda's put on a lot of presentations for like agriculture students at high schools and tech schools.
I'm meeting with a tech school to talk to their class that's studying like social work and that type of thing as well.
So yeah, we're very holistic, all-encompassing.
We just love to connect.
I would guess career fairs during the school year as well are big for you.
Absolutely.
We just, uh, attended a charger fest at Fenimore, um, at the Southwest tech there, which it was kind of like a, um, like, like an, uh, kind of an orientation day, but a lot more festive for like their new students, that type of thing.
So we got to meet with a lot of potential candidates from there as well as, you know, a lot of teachers and that type of thing.
Anything else you want to add here today, Rob?
Um,
I know I listed my phone number here.
Will this is also 608-576-8070.
And just a reminder, we're right across from the Dario.
We are there Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.
to 5 p.m.
So yeah, if you are someone out there, give us a call or stop on by and we can have a conversation and see how we can help.
Great to learn about it here today and come back and see
us again.
Yeah,
thanks for
having me.
You bet.
Rob Oler joining us here, career coach with the National Farmworker Jobs Program.
We'll have more coming up on The Morning Show.