DEVELOPMENT OF A MEAT AND POULTRY PROCESSING WORKFORCE TRAINING CENTER IN PUERTO RICO

Inter American University of Puerto Rico at Barranquitas Campus (IAUPR BC) and Guayama Campus (IAUPR GC) are private non-profit universities that offer educational services in geographical areas with economic need. Both institutions are collaborating in a four-year project, to establish a Meat and Poultry Processing Workforce Training Center in Puerto Rico. Due to the Island financial crisis and natural disasters, agriculture now represents less than the 1% of the Puerto Rico Gross Domestic Product.Therefore, food security is at high risk, depending only from imports, whereas, poor families in rural areas have been negatively and disproportionately affected. Agriculture can play a vital role in ensuring food security, employment generation, and overall economic growth. This proposal is focused on the strength of agriculture to become an economic viable activity in Puerto Rico, through the development of a workforce in the production and processing of meat and poultry. A new Center and unique in Puerto Rico, will be developed to recruit 110 students, that will be registered in specialized academic programs, that will provide the specific skills, according to the industry standards. A laboratory will be equipped in each one of these campuses, for teaching purposes and combined with opportunities to have real practical learnings experiences at the industrial level. Meat and poultry farmers will be trained and will receive a professional certification, that will improve their skills for a better quality of products. Partnerships with industry and Small Business Technology Development Center (SBDTC) will be established, as well as with experts in meat and poultry sciences, that will advise and revise the preparation and implementation of the new curriculum. On line education will improve the delivery of these new academic programs. A symposium on meat and poultry processing and production will take place as part of this project, with the active participation of academia, industry and farmers.