Also known as ‘Supervised Occupational Experience Programs’ (SOEPs) in the US, SOEP has been an integral part of vocational agricultural educational programs for about 100 years.  

The intent of SEPs is to carry instruction to the “doing stage.” SEPs are also meant to expose students to career opportunities. There are four major types of SEPs in agriculture.

i) Placement

In this type of SEP, students are placed in agribusinesses, horticultural businesses, or on farms where they earn and manage wages, and they have opportunities to extend and apply current knowledge and skills.

ii) Ownership

Ownership SEPs allow student(s) to own all or portion of an enterprise or business.

iii) Directed laboratory experience or field experience

In this type of SEP, students are placed in school-owned or community facilities like greenhouses, fish ponds, and vegetable plots. Students receive pay for work done.

iv) Own job experience

Own job experience SEPs share aspects of all the above three types, but they are based on students’ own regular work. Students use their own work as a learning opportunity. They select what they want to learn. They design and implement their own job-related projects. This is the type one that concerns us. The first three types above are more for students who join university straight from high school without field experience.