(1) The general assembly finds and declares that: (a) Finding qualified and trained agricultural employees is a significant challenge for agricultural businesses. It is especially difficult to provide training and experience to young and beginning farmers and ranchers. (b) The barriers to entry for young and beginning farmers and ranchers are significant. Among these barriers are access to training programs that provide real-world work experience. (c) Internships are a recognized way to build a talent pipeline and career pathway to align education, training, and work-based learning; and (d) By offering incentives to agricultural businesses to create internships, there will be more opportunities for students to obtain work experience in agriculture. (2) The commissioner shall promulgate rules creating the agricultural workforce development program to provide incentives to agricultural businesses to hire interns through partial reimbursement of internship costs. The rules must specify, at a minimum: (a) The criteria for selecting an agricultural business for participation in the program, including the ability of the business to effectively supervise an intern and the opportunity for an intern to get meaningful work experience; (b) The criteria for an internship to qualify under the program, including the following: (I) The internship must provide an intern at least one hundred thirty hours of work experience; and (II) The internship cannot exceed one year in duration per intern; (c) The criteria for an agricultural business to use in selecting qualified interns, including the required educational experience for an intern and the ability of the intern to perform meaningful work for the business; (d) The process and timetable for selecting qualified businesses and qualified interns; (e) The accounting requirements for tracking internship costs; and (f) The process for a business to seek reimbursement. (3) Subject to appropriation, the department may reimburse a qualified business an amount not to exceed fifty percent of the actual cost to the business to employ the intern. Actual cost includes the wages paid to the intern, a reasonable allocation of fixed overhead expenses, and all incidental costs directly related to the internship. Based on the annual appropriation for the program, the commissioner shall determine how many internships may be approved, the amount of reimbursement per internship, and whether a business may be reimbursed for more than one intern in the same fiscal year. However, no business may be reimbursed for more than three internships in the same fiscal year. (4) This section is repealed, effective July 1, 2029.
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