A Guide to Grapevine Abnormalities in South Africa - P.G. GOUSSARD

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Villa Academy educates on crop protection best practices

C rop protection, like any other industry, needs smart people. Companies tuned in to their do. Education is just as valued as practical experience as a way to achieve the professional success and status which workers strive to achieve. The Villa Academy identified a need to bring young people into the industry, and obviously bringing in a new generation of salespeople necessitates someone to train them. Previously there has been a lot of discussion in the industry about how it needs to be done, but not much action – it got to a point where Villa Crop Protection decided it should take the lead. Founded in 2011, the Villa Academy occupies two campuses in Cape Town and Johannesburg. A mix of entry-level and senior-level professionals benefit not only from attending classes but also from taking the opportunity to network. A blend of academic and hands-on experience is a theme underlying the Villa Academy’s workforce understand people want to succeed and be good at what they

VILLACROP DPS

philosophy. Approximately 30 lecturers have built careers both in academia and in the field, a combination they leverage in diverse classrooms. Part of the Villa Academy’s uniqueness, is that students at different levels of experience are often grouped in the same classroom. At first that would seem like a challenge for anybody working in an academic environment. But when you have a mixture of people with 20 or 30 years of experience in the field with no tertiary education and then a graduate fresh out of university with zero experience, and they sit in the same classroom, they all come out better people, wanting to know more and realising that they actually need to learn more. Classes are of one to three days duration and cover diverse topics, including: basic toxicology, crop protection reference material, product labels, disease management, plant growth regulators, weed management, biotechnology, rodent control, insect management, biologicals, handling of complaints, adjuvants, application technology, viticulture, wheat and barley cultivation, fly control, etc.