“Cultivating the Success of Beginning Farmers: Hosting Interns, Mentoring Beginning Farmers and Methods for Improving Your Mentoring Skills” is being offered in a four-part interactive webinar that will take place on four Tuesday evenings from 6 to 7 p.m. January 30 through February 27.
The training is geared for established farmers in Idaho who have a desire to pass on their knowledge and skills to beginning farmers and ranchers, and would like to improve skills for teaching and sharing knowledge with an intern or student.
Opportunities for mentoring beginning farmers can range from hosting on-farm or in the class workshops, phone consultations, formal internships and more.
With over 64 years of combined farming experience, our course farmer mentor instructors will guide participants on how to develop successful mentorship relationships that are beneficial for both the beginning farmer and the experienced farmer mentor.
Two experienced Farmer Mentors, Diane Green and Melissa Lines, will lead the workshop series. Both farmers have been providing educational experiences to others through a variety of different types of mentorship programs over their farming careers. Their experience is supported with exercises and teaching materials to help launch experienced farmers into their next phase as a mentor.
"For a mentoring experience to be successful for you, it is important for you to consider the types of preparation required and whether you are up for putting in the time and effort required," said Green, a farmer with over 30 years' experience and also an experienced and farmer-mentor. "It is also important for you to think ahead about some of the potential pitfalls of not being prepared. Taking this time to prepare will also benefit those who are hoping to learn from you.”
“We’re so excited to be able to offer this chance for experienced farmers to learn how to mentor and help develop other farmers!” said Cultivating Success Idaho Director Iris Mayes. “We want to reach all parts of our rural state so we are using a very accessible webinar format.”
This Farmer Mentor training was developed for experienced farmers who may or may not already have a mentorship program in place and are looking for ways to improve their mentoring skills. Whatever the mentoring experience level, this training will provide practical steps and strategies for facilitating successful mentee relationships, and will be useful in a variety of different types of mentorship arrangements.
Course fee is $25, and some partial scholarships are available. More information and registration instructions are available by clicking here.
Registration deadline is January 29.