State outlines workforce pilots tying youth training to water, agriculture and wildfire work

The Water & Natural Resources committee heard a series of presentations Tuesday on efforts to build a workforce for New Mexico’s water, agriculture and land‑management sectors.

Sarita Nair, secretary of the Department of Workforce Solutions, said the department has used sector convenings to align employers and education partners in energy, agriculture, water and natural‑resource management. "Department of Workforce Solutions got 17,000,000 over 3 years from that fund to focus on the areas that the fund identifies," she told the committee, referring to the Community Benefit Fund allocation distributed across fiscal years 26–28.

Nair outlined several investments under the fund, including a $500,000 pass‑through to the Northern New Mexico Youth Fund that leverages philanthropic partners to reach very small, difficult‑to‑serve workforce programs. She said the department uses intermediaries to reduce administrative barriers for very small grantees: "We were able to reach a number of organizations that we normally wouldn't," she said.

Former U.S. Representative Xochitl Torres Small, now with the Kavira Coalition, told legislators that agriculture supports hundreds of thousands of jobs and that the state is losing farms and aging out its workforce. She highlighted an apprenticeship model the group runs — the "New Agrarian" program — which offers on‑the‑job training for ranch hands. Torres Small said the program has produced more than 160 alumni and that about 80% remain in agriculture after completing training.

Ellie Cunda, executive director of the SIMILIA Project, presented results from a Community Benefit Fund pilot that tested a 12‑week, environmental pre‑apprenticeship. The pilot enrolled 34 participants, graduated 32 and placed 21 in year‑long, full‑time positions or back into education. Cunda said the pilot began with a roughly $100,000 seed award and is seeking to scale toward a $1,000,000 pool to sustain placements and wraparound supports.

Committee members pressed presenters on program design and overlap with existing organizations. Representative Montoya asked how a "P‑20" pre‑K‑to‑20 collaborative would interact with pre‑K children; Nair and others said early exposure to agriculture and career ideas is intended to build long‑term pipeline interest and that pilots coordinate with FFA, 4‑H and other local partners to avoid duplication.

Presenters and members also discussed non‑program barriers to workforce entry, including housing for apprentices, mental‑health supports, transportation and access to health care. Torres Small described a partnership with Colorado State University's AgWell program to provide peer‑to‑peer mental‑health facilitation for apprentices.

Nair asked the committee to consider modest state support to sustain pre‑apprenticeship programs and to mitigate the possible federal cut to AmeriCorps funding; in her slide presentation she identified a request for an additional $600,000 in nonrecurring state funds for pre‑apprenticeship expansion and a $2,000,000 nonrecurring request to backfill potential AmeriCorps reductions.

The committee concluded that workforce needs across water, wildfire recovery, agriculture and energy require coordinated investments in training, wraparound services and local partnerships. Members signaled interest in watching pilots for evidence of scalability and return on investment.