Personnel development
Swapping the office
for the field
The new Farming Academy offers our employees the chance to gain hands-on experience. The project is now to be developed further and benefit a large number of employees.
You only get to watch? No way! Anyone wanting a ride on the combine can hop on
Fresh air and blue skies, farmyards and fields, sugarbeet and wheat, combine harvesters and beet lifters: Sabine Vogt still feels a sense of euphoria when looking back on July 20. That was the day the 48-year-old together with a dozen other participants visited KWS’ own farm at Klein Wanzleben in the Magdeburger Börde plain. The day focused on crops, arable farming, tiling fields, harvesting and soil culture – in particular from the practical perspective. The participants picked up a spade, pulled up a sugarbeet and tried a piece. “Surprisingly sweet,” enthused Sabine, who is responsible for personnel development, among other things, at Global HR.
Sabine Vogt has been with KWS since May and was taking part in piloting the planned Farming Academy. A young team from our International Development Program (IDP), including Birgit Schäbitz, Eva Schwietert, Juan Carlos Olmos, Markus Nießen and Suzanne Meyer, presented the idea in February 2020. The aim is to give every employee, regardless of where they work, the chance to submerse themselves in practical farming for a day. Anyone working in an office swaps their desk for the grain field and dons rubber boots instead of business dress.
The Farming Academy is an excellent illustration of one of the key goals of this IDP project: to enable staffers to gain new impressions and insights and come up with creative ideas. Selected employees from various areas of KWS jointly learn the tools of the trade they need to work successfully in the global business environment of the 21st century.
For the senses and the mind
The premiere of the Farming Academy was packed with new sensations, experience and knowledge for the participants. They learned the differences between sugarbeet varieties and that they are not only supplied to sugar factories, but also used as fodder, among other things.
Leaving the sugarbeet field behind them, they were then taken by farmer Immo Milch to wheat fields, a biogas plant run on corn, and a rapeseed field. “Actually, we wanted to watch the plants being harvested there,” says Sabine Vogt.
“I’m inspired by the team’s idea.”
Sabine Vogt
But then the participants experienced first hand that the weather still plays a key role, even in our digital age and with all the technical advances around us. “The rapeseed grains were still one percentage point too moist,” recalls the mother of three. “We wanted to return later after the sun had come out and dried the grains, but it rained instead, which meant harvesting wasn’t possible that day.”
Farm manager Immo Milch explains the differences between the sugarbeet varieties and then lets participants try them
Greater identification
Sabine Vogt believes the Farming Academy is ideal for strengthening employees’ identification with their company. “I’m inspired – by the idea, as well as by the IDP team’s commitment and motivation,” she adds. “For me personally, it was the perfect opportunity to get to know KWS in greater depth and breadth.”
The HR expert would like to develop the project further, including as a tool for new employees at KWS. The Human Resources department also intends to refine its concept, addressing issues such as what are suitable locations and times of the year so that this day of practical farming experience is successful and as many employees as possible can take part.
Beginner’s and advanced levels?
These questions are still being worked on, says Sabine Vogt: “The IDP team has come up with ideas for various Farming Academy levels – for employees for whom the subject of farming is completely new and for others who have already dealt with such content in more depth or have to do so as part of their job.” Yet no matter who takes part in the Farming Academy and what professional background they have, Sabine Vogt is sure about one thing: “A day like that in the fresh air and in the thick of farming is simply fun, exciting, very informative and always an enrichment.” |
The Farming Academy enables farming you can touch and feel
Info:
Sabine Vogt
sabine.vogt@kws.com
© KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA 2025
