2024 Individual Development Plans

Take Your Skills to the Next Level: Complete Your Individual Development Plan!

Individual Development Plans (IDPs) are used by Minnesota’s Technical Training and Certification Program (TTCP) to identify priority technical training needs throughout the state. These training needs provide the foundation for TTCP’s annual training plan. Please complete your IDP by Oct. 18!

Having an accurate assessment of technical training needs is critical to ensure our training delivery will address local needs. There are a couple of things you can do to improve the accuracy of your training needs:

• Review and update your existing training needs. You identified a training need last year, but is it still a training need? It only takes a few moments to either remove outdated training needs or to update them as a current request. For the coming year, we will not consider any training needs dated prior to Jan. 1, 2024.
• Be as specific as possible. When requesting training, there is a space to enter additional comments to identify the topic or content of the training you need, such as specific wildlife species or plant regimes.
• When identifying a practice as a training need you can select which phases – planning, design, construction – you are requesting training on. There is also an option to identify On the Job Training (OJT), classroom, field, or virtual training preferences.
• If you are a newer employee and need some examples of typical practices by land use, check out the common practices by land use tab in the New Employee Training Guide.

To assist both managers and technical staff in completing IDPs, we have put together several resources. This includes two short videos that have bookmarks so you can jump to the specific section you need help with.

• Technical Staff Guidance (video)
• Manager Guidance (video)
• IDP Skill Matrix (xlsx)
• Skill Matrix Definitions (pdf)

Do you prefer visuals and written instructions? Check out the IDP User Guidance resources.

We are also holding virtual IDP office hours on Sept. 26 and Oct. 1 to provide individual/small group assistance for completing IDPs. You can find more information about office hours, including a link to join, on the 2024 Individual Development Plan Office Hours page.

If you have questions or need further assistance please contact us.

Minnesota Climate Conversations

Join the USDA Midwest Climate Hub on Sept. 25 at 1:30 p.m. for a discussion on climate change, agricultural impacts, on-farm strategies, and resources. This presentation and discussion will include a background on climate change in the Midwest and its wide-ranging effects on various agricultural production systems. It will also describe ongoing efforts to understand the effectiveness of ‘climate-smart’ practices and efforts to reduce and offset greenhouse gas emissions. The Climate Hub will also share useful tools and resources to support your work. There will be ample time for questions and discussions about various climate issues. A link to join this session can be found on the Minnesota Climate Conversations page.

In Field Soil Health Assessment Trainings Scheduled

Field training on completing In Field Soil Health Assessments will be held this fall at eight locations on eight different dates around Minnesota. The locations will feature a cadre of experts providing education on cropland where the principles of soil health are being implemented. Fields sites will be located near the communities of Beltrami, Pine City, Pine Island, Park Rapids, Starbuck, Easton, Lake Wilson and Granite Falls. Each date will run from 10 to 3 with a midday break for lunch. The cropland In Field Soil Health Assessment worksheet and guide are used to complete 11 evaluations and identify soil health-related resource concerns. A prerequisite Tech Talk will be held on Sept. 23 to explain the guide and logistics of the field locations. You can find more information and a link to register on the In Field Soil Health Assessments page.

Prescribed Grazing Training

The second, day long classroom and field training on Conservation Practice Standard 528, Prescribed Grazing, will be held on Oct. 1 in Detroit Lakes. The classroom portion will cover the information that should be collected during the planning process to develop a grazing plan, and how to calculate the forage requirements for livestock. The field session includes monitoring of applied grazing systems to determine if they meet the standard.

For additional information and a link to register, please visit the Prescribed Grazing page.

Basic Soils and Landscapes for Conservation Planners

Registration is now open for Basic Soils and Landscapes training, which will be held Oct. 9-10 near Pipestone. This two-day course will provide an overview of the soil survey program, methods, soil maps, Web Soil Survey, interpretive information, and other soil resources that support technical staff with the conservation planning process. Soil genesis, properties, and soil-landscape relationships will all be outlined. Participants will have hands on opportunities in the field with guides, tools, and survey methods to gain confidence and a better understanding of how soils are evaluated and applied to conservation planning.

For additional information and a link to register, please visit the Basic Soils and Landscapes for Conservation Planners page. Please register by Sept. 20!

ArcGIS Pro Training

Did you miss the ArcGIS Pro Training provided by NRCS earlier this year? Are you not on the USDA network? TTCP will provide a basic ArcGIS Pro training to employees that missed the NRCS training or who are not on the USDA network.  Topics such as importing an ArcMap map, editing shapefiles, and creating maps will be demonstrated. The trainings will take place on Nov. 25 in North Branch and Dec. 9 in Mankato. Both locations will be the exact same training, so you only need to sign up for one. Additional information and a link to register can be found on the Basic ArcGIS Pro page.

2024 Shared Training Calendar

An updated working version of the 2024 training calendar is now available. This 12 month view of training offerings is regularly updated and provides information about upcoming training events, including potential dates and locations. Please see the legend at the top and note that the further out a training is proposed the more likely adjustments will need to be made. The dates, locations, and other details are always tentative until the event is posted on the Training Calendar.