The academy offers unique and exceptional training programs led by the most prestigious specialists and professionals in the fruit growing industry.
A new and revolutionary initiative aimed at the agricultural world has just been launched in our country: the Agrarian Fruit Academy, an educational platform specialising in fruit growing, which provides producers and companies in the sector with highly specialised training programmes, taught by renowned industry advisors.
“Agrarian Fruit Academy is a joint initiative of Conecta Educación, a company specializing in postgraduate education, and Smartcherry, the main technical platform specialized in cherry cultivation; the objective of this new platform is to contribute to the development of fruit growing in the country, through a specialized and high-level educational offer,” said Javier Latorre, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Agrarian Fruit Academy, as well as General Manager of Conecta Educación.
The objective of this initiative is to positively impact people's lives and increase the productive potential of the different fruit crops in Chile.
“We firmly believe that education is key to the development and growth of people, and that these, in turn, are essential for the different economic sectors of the country to reach their full potential. That is why we have proposed to contribute to the professionalization of the sector and provide technical and management tools to all professionals in the Chilean fruit sector,” explained Carlos Tapia, Co-Founder and Academic Director of Agrarian Fruit Academy, who is also Technical Director of Avium.
Diplomas, courses and more…
On April 23, Agrarian Fruit Academy will begin its first theoretical-practical course, called “Technical management of pre-dormancy and dormancy in cherry trees.” This course will be taught by its Academic Director, the Agricultural Engineer, M.Sc., Carlos Tapia, who is also one of the most recognized advisors on cherry cultivation in Chile and the world.
“This and all our courses have a theoretical-practical and highly specialized approach. We seek a methodology where students are challenged on all levels and to do so, we will incorporate field days as a fundamental part of the teaching-learning process,” Carlos Tapia explained.
In addition to these instances and face-to-face classes, Agrarian Fruit Academy will hold online sessions, where specialists, together with students, will be able to analyze cases, their evolution and their resolution.
During the month of May, the academy will offer a program on sustainability applied to fruit growing, an initiative that comes at just the right time, considering that this is a challenge for all economic sectors, so having specialized training oriented to the fruit sector is a great opportunity.
Agrarian Fruit Academy, experts in education, seeks to generate extraordinary and meaningful learning experiences; its academic alternatives contemplate limited groups, between 25 and 30 participants, which allows for a high level of interaction with teachers and among students themselves.
“There are several theories about learning, but I really like the simplicity presented by Sara Pain, who describes that it occurs in three dimensions: The biological dimension, which has to do with our own characteristics and the individuality of how we learn; the cognitive dimension, which is the traditional way of understanding the learning process: reading, attending a class or conference, etc.; and the social dimension, where we learn from others by sharing the “doing.” This dimension is the most important, it explains more than 50 percent of what we learn. Some call it “professional experience,” “circus years,” “flight hours,” whatever you want to call it, it is the result of the sum of our practical life experiences.” concluded Javier Latorre.
The Agrarian Fruit Academy methodology seeks to address all dimensions of learning, understanding that social and cognitive aspects explain more than 80 percent of the results. For this reason, the number of participants in the work groups is limited and the theoretical and practical aspects play a crucial role, so that learning is not only through the content and teachings delivered by the teachers, but also through the unique experience of each student.
More information about Agrarian Fruit Academy at www.agrarian.cl.
