Skill Standards

Employment Opportunities • Classroom Learning • Skills Validation On-the-Job

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 believes that part of the educational process is "doing the thing".

The foundation is recognized by the U.S Department of Labor as the national skills body for agriculture. CAF 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, whether they are from the USA or other countries, receives a certificate of completion. If they are Americans, each apprentice receives a joint certificate from the DoL.

These certificates show all of the skills that have been validated in-the-field by employer hosts. 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. 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 employers to search for future employees.