Ontario Agri-Food Education (OAFE) and Canada's Outdoor Farm Show (COFS) have been pleased to collaborate for the last five years on exciting experiential tours which celebrate the innovations and career opportunities available in the sector. OAFE has always eagerly welcomed teachers and students to COFS with the goal of engaging students to the amazing agri-food sector in Canada.
Some progress has been made in negotiations with secondary school teachers in Ontario. However, there are a number of components which remain unresolved in the labour dispute with the various unions and which require further action at the local board level. Given this situation and the tight timelines leading up to the first day of school and COFS, OAFE has made the difficult decision to cancel student tours at COFS for 2015.
“While discussions look promising on the education front, there are still many outstanding collaborations to finalize with teachers’ unions, school boards and the rank and file. OAFE is not in a position to second guess this ongoing negotiating process and timeline. We have therefore made the tough decision to cancel our regular student tours of Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show this year. Cancelled tours will be offered an OAFE Teacher Ambassador visit later this fall and receive ‘front of the line’ status next year.” - Colleen Smith, Executive Director, Ontario Agri-Food Education Inc.
OAFE brings COFS to students, instead of students to COFS
In place of student tours, OAFE will be providing a special training session for OAFE Teacher Ambassadors™ (TA). This will be a key opportunity to engage our TAs in the demonstrations and interactive exhibits which make COFS such a vibrant event. Training of this nature equips our TAs with relevant industry knowledge which they can transfer to students during classroom lessons.
In an effort to bring COFS to students, we encourage educators to request an OAFE Teacher Ambassador™ lesson for their classroom. Our TAs will be eager to share their learning from the Show. As well, OAFE has a variety of free resources available which complement COFS topics, including updated versions of our infographics. Click HERE to access our library of resources.
“Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show supports OAFE in this difficult decision to cancel the student tours on account of the uncertainty in secondary education union negotiations,” says Doug Wagner, President of Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show. “However, we believe the opportunity to train the TAs is an excellent alternative and their learning experience at COFS will still benefit students.”
Source: Outdoorfarmshow