What personnel does Ukrainian agriculture need, and where to get it?
The record harvest of grain intensified a lot of problems of Ukrainian agriculture, including the shortage of skilled personnel in the scope of agrarian business, which presently develops at a high rate.
Experts are sure that under such circumstances it’s important to make analysis in-depth of the problem and start with reforms in education. Problems of personnel training in agriculture were discussed during the Round Table in Kiev, in which the representatives of: the Ministry of Agriculture, the National University of Agriculture, the agrarian manufacturers and businessmen took part.
"The material and technical basis of education in agriculture needs update. Now, when the intellectual constituent of agrarian business is weighty because the thing is not only in modern equipment, but, first of all, in comprehensive approach and technologies," marked the General Director of the AMACO Company Vitaliy Skotsyk.
The typical situation is when young specialist with the university degree face with unknown agricultural techniques and equipments; are not familiar with modern technologies of raising, harvest and processing of a product. In addition, most of the graduated students of agrarian universities don’t work according to their specialty.
"The problem is not in the shortage of human resources, as we have a lot of graduated students of specialized universities, it is only in unwillingness to work in a village, where adequate living conditions are lacked. For instance, our company assists in social support and even leisure-time of the personnel. Along with that, we are unable to rearrange infrastructure of the village. Therefore, only by forming the prestige of agrarian profession we can motivate specialists to work. Concerning the farm wage, it is possible to get similar or even more than abroad payments. That is why, there is no need to become an illegal worker, but it is important to work for the prosperity of the country," marked a proprietor of the Tetievska Factory-Farm Enterprise Ruslan Golub.
Now days, universities need not only to teach, but also to provide some practices. On the other hand, large factory-farm enterprises need to help the education and to propose new forms of cooperation, which could attract students to practice in agriculture.
"Ukraine needs highly-qualified specialists in agriculture. Today it is the most important problem. Agrarian business develops at a high rate and every year are observed the increasing investments to the agriculture of Ukraine. International companies while entering the market are facing the shortage of qualified and required personnel. The human-factor can totally change any business plans. In some cases there is no one to work: specialists and, commonly, machine operators gather form all over the country," marked Vataliy Skotsyk.
"Presently, in Ukraine the skilled technician is twice worth much than, for example, in USA," informed Vitaliy Skotsyk.
In order to better the existing situation, the leading companies started to propose the staff trainings and professional development for their clients; they cooperate with the leading universities and government. For example, the Group of Companies AMACO plans to set up the agro technological centers for teaching the newest technologies on basis of the international experience.
The participants of the Round Table concurred with the importance of close cooperation of the government, science, education and practitioners, without whom it is impossible to develop Ukrainian agrarian business to the world standards. The participators also noted the importance of raising the prestige of agrarian profession, to overcome the stereotypes about qualification and ordinance of a modern machine operator, dairymaid or animal technician.
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