Education plays a fundamental part in the success of a greenhouse operation. Personnel is one of the largest operational expenditures, education of the personnel should therefore not be taken lightly. Providing the staff with a proper training before they commence, helps to reduce accidental damages to crops, spot potential diseases and increases the workflow.
Empowering the greenhouse personnel not only with the right tools but also with the right training makes that the tasks at hand can be performed well and in time. A special course is developed to train a selected group of people to become the managers of the greenhouse which at their turn educate the other staff. This educational program in The Netherlands provides them with hands on experience and with the reasoning why certain tasks need to be performed at a certain time in a certain way.
Agronomic Training
In a modern greenhouse operation there are different levels of staff and disciplines. For all these management positions specialized training-programs are created. For the chief-agronomist however, a trainings course is not sufficient. Hands-on experience is the only way to learn the ropes of greenhouse growing.
This hands-on teaching method has been used for generations of growers in the Westland region in The Netherlands. Agronomic knowledge and crop management has always been transferred from father to son in the family greenhouse business. Today, we use the same principle, but intensify and shorten the learning process.
With each greenhouse project, a Dutch grower is installed for one or two years. In this period, the Dutch agronomist is capable to teach the trade to a selected staff-member. This Dutch Approach has proven to be the best way to transfer agronomic skills and knowledge across the globe.