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What is an SAE?
What is an SAE?
A supervised agricultural experience (SAE) is a student work experience focused in agriculture conducted outside of the classroom setting. An SAE program is an integral part of an agriculture program; it is conducted under the supervision of the agriculture teacher and the student’s parents or employer.
An SAE program serves as a way for students to pursue a real-world experience or hands-on activities in various career fields.
This type of experience serves as an opportunity for students to explore possible career interests.
An SAE can lead to students earning money for their work.
SAEs are part of the agricultural education three circle model. The agricultural education three circle model consists of classroom/laboratory instruction, FFA, and SAE.
Classroom instruction allows students to:
Plan their SAE
Discover what type of SAE best suits them
Learn valuable workplace skills
Collaborate with their parents, teacher, and employer—a person or business that hires workers in exchange for wages
Being involved in the National FFA Organization assists students with their SAE by allowing them to:
Develop specific skills through career development events
Attain leadership skills through conference opportunities
Earn awards for their successful FFA and SAE programs
Foundational SAEs
Foundational SAEs
This level of SAE is appropriate for every student enrolled in the program regardless of their length of time. It is delivered in the classroom instruction component, throughout the four years of the Ag Ed program. Foundational SAE has five separate focus areas. To engage in the foundational SAE students must conduct activities in all five of the areas. They are;
Career Exploration and Planning
Personal Financial Planning and Management
Workplace Safety
Career and Employability Skills
Agriculture Literacy
Foundational SAE involves more than classroom instruction in these five areas. Students engage in individual activities in each area that allows them to gain understanding and knowledge of that area. The activities of each area will progress throughout the four years of enrollment. Work done in earlier years is built upon with more complex activities designed to prepare the student for the workplace and or post-secondary education after graduation.
Immersion SAEs
Immersion SAEs
Student progression through the foundational SAE activities can lead them into more intensive experiential and work-based learning experiences that reside within individual pathways of the agriculture industry. These immersion SAEs are based on the following types of experience;
Placement/Internship
Placement/Internship
Placement / Internship programs involve the placement of students in agriculture, food or natural resources related businesses, on farms and ranches, in school laboratories, at community facilities, or in a verified non-profit organization to provide a "learning by doing" environment. These experiences may be paid or non-paid.
Ownership/Entrepreneurship
Ownership/Entrepreneurship
The student plans, implements, operates and assumes financial risks in a productive or service activity or agriculture, food or natural resources-related business. In these types of programs, the student owns the materials and other required inputs and keeps financial records to determine return on investments. An SAE ownership / entrepreneurship program provides students the opportunity to develop the necessary skills to become established in their own business or gain employment. A student moves from an ownership experience into a true entrepreneurship experience when he/she expands the business enterprise to include a business plan that focuses on development of new product, new production / processing processes or additional market opportunities.
Research
Research
As agriculture has become more scientific, there is a need to conduct research to discover new knowledge to meet the needs of a growing world. There are three major kinds of research SAE programs.
Experimental - An extensive activity where the student plans and conducts a major agricultural experiment using the scientific process.
Analytical –The student chooses real-world agriculture, food or natural resource- related problem that is not amenable to experimentation and designs a plan to investigate and analyze the problem.
Invention – The student identifies a need in agriculture, food or natural resource- related industry and performs research and analysis in order to solve a problem or increase efficiency by developing/adapting a new product or service to the industry.
School-Based Enterprise
School-Based Enterprise
A student-managed, entrepreneurial operation in a school setting that provides goods or services that meet the needs of an identified market. To provide for the greatest educational value to the student, the SAE should replicate the workplace environment as closely as possible. A School-Based Enterprise SAE is oftentimes cooperative in nature with management decisions made by students, while the teacher is responsible for the integration of technical content and skills. School-Based Enterprises may include, but are not limited to, cooperative livestock raising, school gardens & land labs, production greenhouses; school based agricultural research, agricultural equipment fabrication, equipment maintenance services, or a school store.
Service Learning
Service Learning
A student-managed service activity where students are involved in the development of a needs assessment, planning the goals, objectives and budget, implementation of the activity, promotion, and evaluation/reflection of a chosen project. It may be for a school, a community organization, religious institution, or non‐profit organization. The student(s) are responsible for raising necessary funds for the project (if funds are needed). A project must be a stand‐alone project and not part of an ongoing chapter project, or community fundraiser. The project must present a challenge that requires leadership, but also something that students can do with unskilled helpers, and within a reasonable period of time. Service Learning SAEs may be individual or a small group effort amongst students.
Other SAE Resources
Other SAE Resources
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