Simcoe/Norfolk Campus to introduce one-year offering in fall 2016
Fanshawe College is responding to revolutionary changes in the agricultural industry by launching a compact one-year graduate certificate program.
Set to start in fall 2016 at the Simcoe/Norfolk Regional Campus, the Agri-Business Management program has been designed for individuals seeking to enter the agricultural sector at the supervisory level, or to manage relationships in an agri-business environment centered on sales, lending or other services.
Students in the program will take courses such as agricultural finance, new media marketing, food safety and traceability and precision technologies in agriculture.
“Norfolk County is one of the most productive and diverse agricultural regions in Ontario,” stated Donna Gates, chair of the Simcoe/Norfolk Regional Campus.
“This diversity, combined with the innovation and rapidly changing technology within the business of farming, generated an opportunity to develop a program that emphasizes the skills necessary to move the industry forward. We are very grateful to all our community partners in the local agricultural community who provided input and helped us to refine the concept.”
In 2014, Fanshawe began to consult with representatives in the agricultural sector within Norfolk County and across southwestern Ontario to identify the needs of the industry. New standards for food safety, technological innovations and the proliferation of farm-to-consumer business ventures have generated the need for fresh skill sets.
Graduates of the program may have an edge when seeking employment in a wide variety of agricultural businesses including large farms, smaller intensive farming enterprises, food processing and distribution firms, financial services companies, boutique enterprises that market their own products and agricultural supply firms such as input and equipment dealers.