SAE/ Employability Skills

Agricultural Mechanics Industry Careers A. An agricultural engineers design tractors and agricultural machines. B. A forester keeps chainsaws and other forestry equipment running. C. A builder constructs agricultural buildings, and facilities.

Ag Mechanics Careers D. An electrician installs wiring, switches, electric motors, and climate controls such as thermostats and humidistats. E. An agricultural mechanic repairs tractor, truck and other farm equipment engines. F. A welder uses welding machines to repair broken metal machinery and to construct metal equipment.

Ag Mechanics Careers G. A hardware store employee displays and sells tools, parts, and materials to repair agricultural machinery and equipment. H. A soil conservationist constructs terraces and designs plans to prevent erosion.

Ag Mechanics Careers I. A drainage and irrigation system designer and installer plans and installs those systems for fields, turf, landscape, and golf courses. J. A lawn equipment service mechanic repairs lawn tractors, mowers and other lawn and turf equipment.

Skills, Personal and Educational Qualifications A. Skills vary from unskilled to highly skilled depending on the career in agricultural mechanics. A materials handler needs few skills, but an inspector needs many skills to check for quality.

B. Personal interests and qualifications include: 1. Working inside or outside or a combination. 2. Working in a group or alone. 3. Working with people or tools. 4. Working at routine tasks or varying tasks. 5. Physical strength to do the job.

C. Education qualifications vary depending on the careers. 1. High school graduate or less for unskilled entry-level jobs. 2. Technical education for skilled jobs such as technician. 3. Bachelors, masters or doctors degrees for most professional areas such as engineer because of required licenses, paper work, research and/or teaching.

A. Definition 1. Mechanics is the branch of physics that deals with motion and the action of forces on bodies. 2. Agricultural mechanics is the selection, operation, maintenance, servicing, selling and use of power units, machinery, equipment, structures, and utilities used in agriculture.

B. Categories of Agricultural Mechanics 1. General Agricultural Mechanics involves using skills and knowledge from all the categories. 2. Agricultural Electrification, Power, and Controls includes installing, servicing, and repairing electrical wiring, controls and power. 3. Agricultural Power Machinery Operation is operating tractors and agricultural equipment.

Categories of Agricultural Mechanics 4. Agricultural Mechanics, Construction and Maintenance includes constructing, maintaining, and repairing agricultural structures, equipment and machinery. 5. Agricultural Structures, Equipment, and Facilities include concrete, carpentry, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

Categories of Agricultural Mechanics 6. Soil and Water Mechanical Practices involve water quality, soil and water conservation practices, irrigation and waste disposal. 7. Other Agricultural Mechanics includes any category not listed above.

Importance of Agricultural Mechanics A. Economic – money –1. Provides jobs. –2. Saves on repair costs. –3. Increases agricultural production efficiency.

Importance of Agricultural Mechanics B. Environmental – health and comfort –1. Maintains and repairs to prevent accidents. –2. Cleans, heats, and cools air. –3. Provides safe food supply (refrigeration).

Importance of Agricultural Mechanics C. Outlook is for the agricultural mechanics industry to remain strong because of increase in population, technology, and new home construction requiring more lawn equipment.

School-to-Work Employment Plan Objective: Describe the procedures to follow in planning and implementing a school-to- work employment plan.

Factor in selecting a career Standard of living Personal contact –working with people vs things Education Skills or experience required Location

Factor in selecting a career Interest –likes and dislikes Working conditions Working hours and leisure time Retirement benefits Your health and happiness

Assignment Name seven steps to choosing a career on the board. The person whose birthday come closest to this day wins the chance to start!

Steps in choosing a career 1) Consider you interest and abilities 2) Narrow the field of jobs 3) Study the requirements 4) Plan alternative occupations 5) Prepare a plan for your career prep 6) Be willing to pay the price 7) Get work experience

How Can You Gain Experience While in School? Part-time job Volunteer work Hands on activities Home projects Experiments/s chool projects

Types of SAE Activities Entrepreneurship Placement Research –Experimental –Analytical Exploratory Improvement Supplementary

What is an SAE? A learn by doing process. Agricultural students reinforce learning by applying skills and knowledge acquired in class and shop by means of an ownership and/or non-ownership project. Allows for student to establish short and long term goals.

What is SAE? Supervised Agricultural Experience SAE’s are: In the agriculture industry Conducted outside school time Supervised by the teacher Planned around an agriculture occupation Designed to apply classroom/lab learning

What are my agricultural interests? Students have SAE’s to: –provide agricultural experiences –“Learning by Doing” SAE Benefits Earn Money Learning Opportunities Earn Awards, Degrees, Scholarships Usually Fun

What are the types of SAE? Placement – Placing students in jobs outside of regular classroom hours that may be paid or unpaid work. –Ex; farm supply store, poultry farm Entrepreneurship - Owning & operating an ag business – planning, implementing, operating and assuming financial risks. Livestock, crops, lawns, etc.

What are the Types of SAE? Improvement – a series of activities that improve the value or appearance in the home or community; the efficiency of a business or enterprise; or the living conditions of the family –Ex; building a fence; computerizing records, remodeling a building, or repairing equipment.

What are the Types of SAE? Experimental - planning and conducting an ag experiment using the scientific process and involving a number of steps. –Ex comparing different levels of protein on animal growth.

What are the Types of SAE? Analytical – choose a problem that cannot be solved and design a plan to investigate and analyze the problem. –Ex: Marketing Display Exploratory - “Shadowing” or career Explorations Supplementary – One Specific skill not related to major SAE

Using A Financial Record Keeping System Objective Describe the elements of a financial statement

What kinds of records should businesses keep? Assets Liabilities Net worth Profit and loss statement Cash receipts Non-cash receipts Invoice

Assets Things of value that one owns Example: Your car after all payments have been made.

Current Assets Items quickly converted to cash or items that will be sold within 12 months –cash on hand –checking –savings –stocks or bonds –Money other owe –cash in value of insurance

Non- Current Assets Items that have a useful life of more than one year –land –machinery –breeding livestock

Liabilities Things that you owe money to other people for or debts Example: My Visa

Current Liabilities Debts that are due to be paid this year –fertilizer and feed bills –tractor and building payments –part of the mortgage due this year

Non-Current Liabilities Debts not due this year –mortgages remainder of mortgage after this year’s payment –other debt not due this year Example: 24 months same as cash

Debt-to-Equity Ratio Used by banks and lending institutions to decide whether or not to lend money to specific people or businesses Credit Report Debt-to-Equity Ratio = Total Liability Net Worth

One’s assets minus their liabilities. You have $3000 in the bank, but you owe $1750 for your bills. Your net worth is $

Net Worth Current Assets + Non-Current Assets=Total Assets Current Liabilities + Non-Current Liabilities=Total Liabilities

Inventory An itemized list of things owned by a business with the beginning value and depreciated value

Inventory Non-depreciable-items that will be used or sold within a year –feed –supplies

Inventory Depreciable-items that have a useful life of more than one year and lose value because of age, wear or becoming out-of date because of technology advancements Land is NOT depreciable property –tractor –computer –chainsaw

Profit and loss statement A financial statement of a business that reports the profit made by the business or the losses incurred.

Cash receipts Cash that is paid for services or merchandise.

Non-Cash receipts Payment for services in other ways than cash.

Invoice Shows items and prices for things that have been bought from a certain business.

Other business records Labor Materials Travel