Following our launch of the Swine Academy in the UK, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands in 2016, more than 100 colleagues within Swine Sales successfully completed all the Academy modules (with the exception of new colleagues who started in 2018). Janneke Keeris, Swine Academy coordinator: “The Swine Academy has different modules, each one focussing on one of the pig’s life phases. Each module is a combination of sharing technical knowledge and training various skills in practical workshops using practical cases. The aim of these modules was to ensure all specialists and account managers have the same basic knowledge and are all ‘up-to-date’ again. Sharing knowledge across the different countries was certainly an important objective too.”

The Ruminant Academy was also launched in 2016. Since than, the Academy has been further developed and implemented in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany and partly in the UK. In 2019 we also want to  implement the academy fully within ForFarmers UK. “The Academy is an important way to help our sales team in understanding our market approach and ‘translate’ this to the customer”, says Jarich Westra, Coordinator Ruminant Academy. “In the training sessions we show and explain how our knowledge is used in daily practice on farm level. In other words, these interactive days focus on how to apply our knowledge. Knowledge transfer within ForFarmers is important, but being able to share it with our customers is even more important. The Academy serves both purposes.”

The Poultry Academy was launched in 2017 and since that time all sales colleagues in Poultry - approximately 60 employees in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the UK - have been trained in four overarching technical modules: Nutrition, Health, Management and Data & Economics. Various different subjects have been addressed within these modules, using challenging workshops, brief in-depth sessions with assignments or types of games.