How, and why, the SOIL program works

On SOIL's website, anyone can view brief descriptions of participating farms from around Canada by clicking on the region of Canada they are interested in. Once you have paid your $30 administration fee, SOIL then sends you detailed profiles of your top five choices, plus some advice on what to look for in an apprenticeship, questions to ask during the interview, how to arrange the "contract," etc. From there, applicants are left to contact their top choices for interviews. Should none of your top five choices result in an apprenticeship, SOIL will send you the profiles of your next five choices, and so on until you have secured an apprenticeship.

SOIL worked well for my girlfriend and me because of its simplicity, and its flexibility in letting us determine the structure of the apprenticeship. Our requirements, like most people's, were quite unique: we wanted to be on a mixed-operation family farm, preferably on a large acreage; didn't want to engage in a research project or write reports, wanted more emphasis on hands-on rather than classroom instruction, didn't want or need educational credit, and wanted to be on a farm in the maritimes. SOIL has many participating farms, so it wasn't hard to find farms that met our needs. Of our top five choices, four gave us interviews, and three of those offered us an apprenticeship.

I have since visited a number of other SOIL-linked farms, and am convinced that there is a farm listed for every type of apprenticeship.