Leadership Training for the Spanish-Speaking Farm Workforce
Welcome to AgHiRE, an innovative training program designed to support employers in upskilling their Spanish-speaking agricultural workforce. AgHiRE equips Spanish-speaking farm employees with critical language skills, digital literacy, and leadership training, enabling them to advance into roles with more responsibility within their organizations. Our goal is to assist employers in developing the inherent potential within their teams, ensuring each employee reaches their highest capability.
Classes & Curriculum
AgHiRE offers relevant learning opportunities in high-priority areas identified by employers, including leadership and communication, digital literacy, regulatory awareness, and English.
Schedule:
The next cohort is planned for winter 2026–2027.
Location:
Classes are held in person each winter in Yolo County, California. We are also exploring opportunities to expand AgHiRE to additional regions across the state. If you’re interested in bringing AgHiRE to your county, we’d love to hear from you.
Interested in future participation? Complete this form to express interest, and we’ll be in touch when enrollment opens.
Employer OVerview
who can enroll?
Employers can enroll employees who exhibit significant potential for advancement and would benefit from professional development.
We welcome candidates that employers wish to develop, provided they meet the following criteria:
- Employees currently in front-line farm leadership roles or those showing promise for promotion.
- Participants should be native-Spanish speakers as much of the program will be delivered in Spanish.
To ensure we can offer this training to as many employers as possible, we may need to limit the number of seats per company. If you’re interested in enrolling more than three employees, please let program staff know during your discovery call.
Program Cost
We are committed to keeping AgHiRE accessible to employers. Program fees will be finalized and shared prior to the next enrollment period.
The AgHiRE program requires that employees be paid for time spent in class. Participant stipends to offset training costs may be available on a case-by-case basis and can be discussed individually during the enrollment process.
Employer and Employee Commitments
Employers are expected to adjust their operations and staffing to ensure enrolled employees can fully attend the program. This includes avoiding work-related interruptions during scheduled class time, allowing employees to dedicate 100% of their time in class to learning.
The High Road Training Partnership grant that funds our program aspires to support innovative programs that deliver equity, climate resilience, and job quality. To this end, the vision of our program is to provide farm employees high-quality professional development that will result in long term career advancement. We will conduct employer evaluations approximately 3 months after the program ends to learn what new or increased skills participants have demonstrated, how this has impacted farm operations, and what changes in participant’s responsibilities, position or wage advancements have occurred, or are anticipated.
Ready to take the next step?
Complete this interest form and we will be in touch.
Questions? Please reach out to aghire@landbasedlearning.org or call Bilingual Education Coordinator Oscar Velez at (530) 795-1520.
Testimonial
AgHIRE
We’ve been looking for a way to invest in our team, and there hasn’t been an opportunity to do this in a meaningful way in the agriculture industry until AgHiRE was developed. This program gave us a chance to demonstrate our company values to our employees in a way we haven’t been able to do before.
Now he’s taking the lead to solve things, making recommendations, and asking why things are done a certain way. He can see the big picture and wants to be part of the change.
I gained more confidence in myself from the class.
I’ve seen a huge boost of confidence. He’s gone from shy and quiet to asking if he’s doing things right. Now he’s more comfortable intervening, making decisions and taking disciplinary action in the field. It’s like night and day compared to our other supervisors.
The leadership classes have helped get me through difficult situations, make daily decisions, and become a better leader.
Since the program, he has taken on increasingly complex managerial responsibilities and contributed to important decisions, allowing us to step back and let him handle things.
