The Sacramento Valley Beginning Farmer Apprenticeship Program is a new collaboration between the Center for Land-Based Learning and Soil Born Farms, funded through a grant from the California Department of Food & Agriculture and the Orchard Hill Family Fund in 2015/2016. The program builds off the existing farmer training programs within each organization, and is being designed to offer in-depth, multi-year education, and land access to beginning farmers in Yolo, Solano and Sacramento counties.

The team will be working with the state's Department of Apprenticeship Standards to make the Sacramento Valley Beginning Farmer Apprenticeship Program the only accredited agricultural apprenticeship program in California. The program will encompass the current training program of the California Farm Academy, and broaden it to offer multi-year apprenticeship stages, and more individualized focus. The program offers on-farm and field experience, classes on various agricultural topics, visits to a number of diverse farms in the region as well as management and decision-making skills. In the second and third year of the program, participants can choose to apprentice with a local farmer, lease land themselves and launch their own business in the California Farm Academy farm incubator, or continue focusing on coursework. Regardless of their path, networking and technical assistance with agricultural professionals and farmers, advanced workshops and mentorship will be part of the extended support available in the second and third years of the program.

The goal is to equip beginning farmers with sufficient training, work experience, and business management skills to obtain a secure management position with established farms, or be successful at starting and sustaining their own small farm businesses.