Tetiana Antonenko, International Dairy Magazine

That’s not a secret, that those know about the problem of training dairy farm employees the best, who communicate constantly with teachers and students of our agricultural Universities. If you read some of our interviews, taken for the magazine “Milk and Farm”, you will get some idea about how milk industry is provided with skilled experts. 

 I had a chance to get acquainted with a respected man from France in the mid 90’s. He had to leave Ukraine in 1939. At that time he was a young postgraduate at one of Kyiv Universities. He even managed to publish his own study guide. When he was 90 years old he decided to visit Ukraine again. He went to Vinnytsia region, were he spent his childhood and adolescence. He dropped in Kyiv. Together with his old son he visited his University. Everybody was happy to see a former student and presented him his book, which was preserved at the University before pre-war time. As it usually happens we all had dinner together and had a talk in a friendly atmosphere. That man didn’t change his profession in France in spite of all emigrant difficulties, and his son continued family tradition in the same sphere of science his father worked in. He worked at the University and for French enterprises. So, talking we touched the problem of the relationship between education and production.

We had a rather friendly conversation. It was strange for a professor of the French University to hear about the fact that our university science doesn’t help much in progress and have little influence with domestic operations. He delicately asked if our enterprises were at a low ebb, as Ukrainian universities have no research basis. He was surprised to hear that the sector is developed enough and the production is on a rather high level: products are recognized in the world, enterprises are developing, re-equipping and modernizing. Though, graduates have to start learning almost from the very beginning, when they get in such an active atmosphere. It was interesting for Ukrainian teachers to find out that the situation is completely different in France and the leaders of innovations in this sphere are Universities. Their graduates are guides of fresh ideas and skills got in the process of studying and practice in research laboratories which serve to meet the needs of production. Leading companies collaborate with universities, have laboratories there and engaged in researches together with students. That’s why graduates are plunged into production and very often initiate the introduction of the latest manufacturing technologies.

Find more information in the magazine “Milk and Farm” # 5 (18), October, 2013