Thursday, January 29, 2015

Poultry training now online

 The Poultry Industry Council is launching PoultryPro, an online modular training program that is useful for farming all types of poultry.
This course was developed in response to a need identified by industry stakeholders for a relevant and comprehensive training opportunity applicable to the entire sector. Previously, no such industry-wide opportunity was available.
It's another example of outstanding leadership from the Poultry Industry Council.
PoultryPro consists of four online modules that focus on management in the barn, for feed and water, for breeders and for diseases.
The target audience is new farm workers, new industry employees, and new graduates hoping to work in the poultry industry.
"PoultryPro is all-encompassing for the poultry sector, it is not specific to any one company or poultry species," explains Laura Bowers, education and extension programs manager with PIC.
"There is a lot of information out there, but PoultryPro brings it all together in an online course format that is very practical and useful at the barn level," she says.
PoultryPro isn't meant to replace on-the-job training; rather, it will introduce those taking the program to important key poultry production concepts and make them familiar with relevant general information and aspects of the poultry industry.
PoultryPro is being delivered through a partnership with the Business Development Centre at the University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus. This group was chosen as they already deliver other online courses, and thus have the required infrastructure and IT resources in place.
Ridgetown also has a staff team experienced in online course delivery and transferring adult education materials into e-learning formats.
The course information consists of online materials and a textbook, and is provided in a variety of ways.
It has been designed to be interactive and features a number of interactive learning activities, clickable buttons, links and extra resources throughout each module.
While PoultryPro is a comprehensive training program, both the time commitment required and cost are manageable, the PIC  says.
The course fee is $180 plus HST; more information and course registration are available on the PIC website at: http://www.poultryindustrycouncil.ca/training-and-events/poultrypro-101/.

This project was funded in part through Growing Forward 2 (GF2), a federal-provincial-territorial initiative. The Agricultural Adaptation Council assists with GF2 delivery in Ontario.