In September 2021, Wageningen University and Research Center in the Netherlands, Yuncheng College of Changrong City, together with Shanxi Changrong Agricultural Science and Technology Co., Ltd., jointly launched a four-month online pig master course "New Farmer" education project. This training course was well received by the participants. The success of the course has also opened up a new model of school-enterprise joint training.

"Enterprise talents are inseparable from advanced knowledge"

Mr. Yao Jun, Chairman of Shanxi Changrong Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., has many years of cooperation experience with Wageningen University and Research Center in the Netherlands. In the view of Mr. Yao Jun, chairman of the company, the long-term development of the enterprise is inseparable from the talent reserve, and technology and knowledge are the key elements of the competitiveness of the enterprise. Adhering to this concept, Changrong Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., as a leading enterprise in the pig industry, joined hands with the world-class agricultural university Wageningen University in the Netherlands and Yuncheng College, a local university in Changrong, to jointly launch a four-month online pig master course "New Farmer" education project.

Academic experts and business representatives co-teach

The "Pig Master Course" is a course that systematically teaches the theory and practice related to pig farming. Lecturers include professors from Wageningen University, researchers from the Wageningen Research Center, lecturers from the Dutch University of Applied Sciences, as well as many senior experts from the Dutch pig industry and representatives of pig farmers. The lecturer group composed of more than 20 academic experts and enterprise representatives spent four months to provide young scholars and front-line workers in pig production and breeding with a combination of theory and practice, systematic learning opportunities

Courses cover a number of topics such as pig production, pig behaviour and welfare, breeding, reproduction and pregnancy, delivery management, piglets and fattening pigs, and farm management. The course provides an open learning mode for the participants, and on the basis of the instructor's teaching, there is also an additional group assignment session and Q&A session. The participants met their industry peers in group assignments and discussed and exchanged views with industry experts during the Q&A session.

The school-enterprise cooperation course was well received by the students

The four-month training is conducted in the form of live online classes every two weeks, totaling 80 hours. A total of 47 participants participated in the training. In the after-school feedback survey, the "Pig Master Course" score was as high as 4.47 out of 5. 98% of the participants believe that the course meets expectations, and 93% of the participants said they would recommend others to participate in similar school-enterprise training courses.

I hope that through this rare learning opportunity, the trainees will be able to take agriculture as their profession and take pleasure in agriculture in the future, be a faith, bottom line, and responsible agricultural producer, and make their own contributions to the development of China's "three rural areas" cause while creating their own happy life!

Learner feedback

1. I have a systematic understanding of pig raising, and I realize that protecting the environment is everyone's responsibility, especially businesses have more obligations and responsibilities to assume this responsibility.
2. I learned the basics of pig farming, the pig's growth cycle and its breeding environment. From the lectures of the teachers of Wageningen University and research center, I broadened my career and learned about the development trend of the entire industry.
3. I learned a lot of advanced pig raising knowledge and improved my English speaking and listening and teamwork skills.
4. Through the study of this course, I realized that pig breeding requires a lot of time, energy and experience. When designing a factory, many factors need to be taken into account, such as a series of problems such as lighting, excretion, etc.
5. I was amazed by the knowledge of intelligent farming, and I think there are many mysteries about pigs that are worth exploring.
6. I have a systematic understanding of pig farming, and understand that pig farming is not as modern and scientific as we first thought.

Feedback from the course organizers

The successful holding of this course is inseparable from the careful organization of the teachers of the University of Watts and the Running College, and also finds a direction for exploring school-enterprise cooperation, and has more confidence in the follow-up cooperation. The growth and progress of the students is also very obvious, the level of defense at the end of the course exceeds expectations, and the teamwork learning method is integrated, allowing students to train soft skills in language, communication and cooperation in advance.

— Yao Jun, Chairman of Changrong

The course content is comprehensive and systematic, the teaching staff is strong, the teaching forms are diversified, and the curriculum arrangement is scientific and reasonable, so that anyone can understand the development of the pig industry. The course links the cooperation between domestic and foreign schools and enterprises, explores new talent training models, and encourages students to exert their internal driving force for learning and arrange learning flexibly and autonomously. In addition, Teacher Sun of Yuncheng College is very dedicated, in line with the sense of responsibility that no one can be left behind, organizing preparation, review, defense and examination during the whole course, and is a very responsible class teacher.

— Yibo Zhao, Partner of Danish-Russian International, Changrong Strategic Partner

This course is also personally participated as a participant, the content of the course is more than expected, coupled with the challenge of teaching in English, it is necessary to organize students to prepare in advance and answer questions after class. In the mid-term group report, the students are not familiar with the learning mode of the group report, coupled with the preparation is relatively hasty, the results are not as expected, but in the later links, it is obvious to see the progress of the students, the results of the report are also affirmed by the teachers, looking forward to the graduation ceremony of this course, for this school-enterprise cooperation, industry-education integration of the attempt to draw a successful end, but also look forward to more cooperation. “

                                                                       — Sun Nunu, Associate Professor, Yuncheng College

It was great to work with this group of students. We shared both theory and practical insights in pig production. I hope the experience in this course makes them hungry for more knowledge and insights.

— Robert Hoste, course leader, senior  researcher Wageningen Economic Research