WARWICK – A new federally funded associate degree program at the Community College of Rhode Island has been created to help prepare students for careers within the state’s growing land and sea industries, including within the landscape, farm and food sectors.
The new Environment, Sustainability and Management associate degree program at CCRI will be offer in partnership with the Rhode Island Nursery & Landscape Association and the Rhode Island Food Policy Council. CCRI, RINLA and RIFPC jointly said fall classes will commence Aug. 31 and all Rhode Islanders who want to learn skills on how to address social, economic and ecological challenges through the land and sea business sectors are encouraged to register.
Shayna Cohen, senior consultant with Southold, N.Y.-based firm Karen Karp & Partners who helped RIFPC and RINLA create and implement the program, told Providence Business News Friday the program is aided by a three-year, $499,655 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The program, CCRI said, will blend science and business, provide work-based learning opportunities, and positions graduates to develop career paths and make impacts on social and environmental profiles of the companies they work for.
Cohen said ideas to create the program came about because Rhode Island’s land and sea industries are “a significant portion” of the Ocean State’s economy both directly – agriculture, food processing and landscape management jobs – and indirectly, such as creating and maintaining open spaces. Per a RIFPC 2017 analysis, the state’s food cluster at the time accounted for 69,357 jobs, or 17% of the state’s total private employment, Cohen said.
Also, RIFPC and RINLA noted that after speaking with employers between 2017 and 2022, growth within the food and agriculture sectors was projected to the continue, Cohen said. However, she said RIFPC and RINLA said employers within these sectors have “struggled for years” to fill various jobs from entry level to leadership roles, hence the need to create this new degree program at CCRI.
The new program will allow students to transfer as juniors to the University of Rhode Island College of the Environment and Life Sciences’ related bachelor’s degree programs, CCRI said. Also, CCRI’s Environment, Sustainability and Management graduates will have immediate career opportunities. Cohen confirmed that the program will partner with various local food, landscape and farm businesses who will agree to hire students for work-based learning experiences. An employer list agreeing to work with the college is currently being finalized, she said.
In a statement, CCRI President Meghan L. Hughes said the new program is a “perfect example” of local industry and policy leaders collaborating with higher education to create a pathway that “responds to labor market demands.”
After the grant expires, the program will be sustained by CCRI’s enrollment and other institutional assets, faculty and leadership, Cohen said. Enrollment and program information can be found on CCRI’s website.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
