Two upcoming programs for ag students at Assiniboine Community College were aimed at building a skilled workforce for the food-processing industry.
The curriculum for chemical engineering technology and food science programs — both three-year diplomas — will be developed in collaboration with plant-protein giant Roquette and with aid from Canada’s protein supercluster, Protein Industries Canada (PIC), ACC announced May 4.
The two programs will be designed to address labour needs in plant-protein processing and the food and beverage manufacturing sector in general, ACC said.
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“They’re very unique. Industry wants them,” Derek Turner, director of advancement and external relations with ACC, said. He added that the programs would increase the breadth of programming through the budding agriculture college, and said programming for industries “adjacent” to agriculture would likely become more common as the college’s ag offerings continue to evolve.
“There’ll be industries that maybe aren’t core agriculture, but they also need these type of people trained,” he said.
ACC is promising to offer programs targeted at creating a skilled agri-food workforce for the province.
The announcement comes as part of ACC’s aggressive efforts to grow agribusiness and agriculture-related capacity.
In fall 2020, the college launched a campaign to repurpose an existing building into a hub for agricultural and environmental education and applied research. The newly dubbed Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture would both host existing programs — such as the agribusiness diploma program, horticulture, land and water management, geographic information system mapping (GIS) and communications engineering technology — as well as an expanded list of options, including automation and robotics, Indigenous resource management, expanded civil technology programming and the aforementioned food science and chemical engineering technology.
In total, the college hopes to grow ag-related student spaces from 300 to 800.
“The exciting thing here is it’s actually developing the programs that are now going to go in (the centre),” Turner said.
Michelle Finley, communications and public affairs manager for Roquette’s Canadian operations, tied the incoming programs to the need for skilled labour. In particular, she flagged the company’s pea-processing plant, the largest such plant in the world, located in Portage la Prairie.
“The Roquette plant is highly advanced,” she said. “It’s a very automated, highly engineered environment. So we’re looking for production workers who have a really robust understanding of food science and have an understanding of food safety and nutrition. We’re looking for a very well-rounded person to step into those production roles.”
The ability to work safely with chemicals on site, likewise, lend value to the chemical engineering technology program, Finley said.
The plant’s proximity, about an hour east of ACC’s Brandon campus, also gives opportunity for students to visit the plant and opens the door for possible internships or practicums, she noted.
“Those are great exposure programs for any employer to sort of orientate newly graduated students to the benefits of working for that company, so we’re excited for that opportunity,” she said.
Bill Greuel, CEO of Protein Industries Canada, said the new courses will help grow the talent pool for the plant-protein sector, a sector that PIC says will need about 17,000 new employees nationwide by 2035.
“It is critical that we develop programs to help build a skilled workforce to meet the needs of our industry partners,” he said.
There is no set date on when the new diploma programs will see their first student cohorts, Turner said.
