Competence Management to Build Skilled Foreign Workforces in Agriculture

Satisfaction of high consumer demands makes it indispensable to have adequate professional competences for compliance with quality standards available in agricultural enterprises. Agriculture is widely exploiting the latest technical developments to this end, e.g. computerization of monitoring and evaluation processes. Increasing demands for well-qualified labor exert enormous pressure on this sector in rural regions. Safeguarding skilled personnel bases must be harmonized with over-aging rural populations and rural-to-urban migration, on the one hand, and fierce global competition and swiftly advancing technology developments, on the other.

It will not be possible to cover future demands for skilled labor with people from rural communities, who grew up in villages and schooled there. In other words, additional employees have to be attracted who come from other regions and are hardly familiar with our culture and language. If we want those people to put up a good work performance we will have to offer them reasonable jobs. A corporate culture that is sensitive to integration will be capable of ensuring that foreign workers find their place in agricultural businesses and the region and help us coping with the tasks faced.

How this might be achieved, what will have to be considered in the process and how farms can prepare for the new challenges with the project Alfa Agrar will be presented at an event organized by the Qualifizierungspool Landwirtschaft on 30 September 2014. The agricultural enterprise Agrarunternehmen Barnstädt together with the institutes IAMO and ZSH invites all interested parties to its premises from 11 am to 4 pm. The event will involve various agri-businesses and the Regional Farmers' Association and Farmers’ Union Saxony-Anhalt, the Ministry of Agriculture and  the Environment Saxony-Anhalt, the Federation of Agricultural and Forestry Employers Saxony-Anhalt and Regional Directorate Saxony-Anhalt-Thuringia of the Federal Employment Agency. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) and supported by the project promoter DLR.

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'Alfa Agrar’ Kick-off Event:

Venue: Agrarunternehmen Barnstädt e. G. (www.aub-online.de)
Date/Time: 30 September 2014, 11 am to 4 pm

Registration:
Bettina Wiener (Contact at ZSH)
veranstaltung(at)zsh.uni-halle.de
Tel.: +49 345 9639-600
Fax: +49 345 9639-601