Posted by Kromey at 2:13pm Apr 27 '12Maybe the private sector institutions aren't providing quality training? It does seem, on the face of it, to be unnecessary for central government to run the course, though (they should be providing a test at the end of it).
Why should the government be involved at all in private sector training courses for private sector work? They don't get involved like this in any other private sector industry -- there's no government training program, nor any government test, for a career in IT or computer programming, for example -- so why this one?
OSHA regulations (workplace safety, if you're unaware) apply just the same to farms as they do to any other place of employment, meaning safety is already being monitored and assured. Outside of that, if an organization were providing sub-par training, farms would be less likely to hire the graduates of such programs, instead preferring those of other programs that are actually effective. (That being said, though, there's lots of work on a farm that requires no training whatsoever -- the moment we start talking about training programs, therefore, we're automatically not talking about those jobs!)
So why should government be involved at all?
Everything in the official press release is talking about 'employment' and therefore wouldn't affect people from doing volunteer days out - though it might help in making it more difficult to exploit such 'volunteers' on a continual or recurring basis.
This is a fair point. And maybe it's different in the UK, but over here regulations about who can be "employed" to what jobs have been used to prohibit volunteers from doing one-off "career day" and the like work.
In other words, depending on how the rules are written, it very well could prevent kids who have joined FFA or 4-H from participating in "employment-like" projects on farms. Wanted to take your group to the local dairy farm and have them learn first hand how to milk a cow? Sorry, only the one kid in the group who's family happens to own that farm is allowed!
Hence the public testimony period, and people making their voices heard. The message got distorted along the way, and picked up no doubt by people who honestly didn't know what the issue was, but that doesn't in any way diminish the legitimacy of those who were concerned about this objecting to rules that would have this effect.
Why should the government be involved at all in private sector training courses for private sector work? They don't get involved like this in any other private sector industry -- there's no government training program, nor any government test, for a career in IT or computer programming, for example -- so why this one?
OSHA regulations (workplace safety, if you're unaware) apply just the same to farms as they do to any other place of employment, meaning safety is already being monitored and assured. Outside of that, if an organization were providing sub-par training, farms would be less likely to hire the graduates of such programs, instead preferring those of other programs that are actually effective. (That being said, though, there's lots of work on a farm that requires no training whatsoever -- the moment we start talking about training programs, therefore, we're automatically not talking about those jobs!)
So why should government be involved at all?
Everything in the official press release is talking about 'employment' and therefore wouldn't affect people from doing volunteer days out - though it might help in making it more difficult to exploit such 'volunteers' on a continual or recurring basis.
This is a fair point. And maybe it's different in the UK, but over here regulations about who can be "employed" to what jobs have been used to prohibit volunteers from doing one-off "career day" and the like work.
In other words, depending on how the rules are written, it very well could prevent kids who have joined FFA or 4-H from participating in "employment-like" projects on farms. Wanted to take your group to the local dairy farm and have them learn first hand how to milk a cow? Sorry, only the one kid in the group who's family happens to own that farm is allowed!
Hence the public testimony period, and people making their voices heard. The message got distorted along the way, and picked up no doubt by people who honestly didn't know what the issue was, but that doesn't in any way diminish the legitimacy of those who were concerned about this objecting to rules that would have this effect.
Re: About that 'power grab' - Kromey