International AgroSkills Challenge competition: promising skills for development of the agricultural sector

The international AgroSkills Challenge competition on the promising skills of the agro-industrial complex, such as the Agricultural Biotechnology, City Farming, and Digital Farming, held in a multi-location format at Borisovka Agromechanical Vocational School, Uyar Agricultural Vocational School, Kolomna Agricultural College named after N.T. Kozlov, Korocha Agricultural Vocational School, Rakitnoye Agrotechnological Vocational School, Moscow State College of Electromechanics and Information Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering (China), Volta Technical Institute (Ghana), Jiangsu Polytechnic College of Agriculture and Forestry (China) with the support of the Skills Development Agency and Skills and the Advanced Vocational Training Centre of the Belgorod region. Competitors and experts from China, Ghana, and Russia, as well as observers from India took part in the competition.

"Development of the agribusiness is important to most countries nowadays, which is why training highly qualified professionals and building a system of evaluation are at the heart of transforming the industry. Introduction of digital skills and Future Skills in the training for agricultural professions is an integral part of development of said skills," says Ms Alina Doskanova, Deputy Director General, International Relations Director at Skills Development Agency.

Competition management centres which international Russian experts were supervising the competition and evaluated the projects completed from were located at the distributed venues in Belgorod, Moscow, and Krasnoyarsk.

"Consistent development of the agricultural industry has been facilitated by advanced integration of public and private interests in creation of a comfortable investment climate in the agro-industrial complex, a favorable Russian and global agri-food market situation," says Pavel Pripuzov, Head, Department for Organization of Competitions, thanked all the participants and spoke about the development of the agricultural sector in the Belgorod region.

This is the first time the AgroSkills Challenge has been held in this format. Participants noted the level of professionalism of the hosting experts, the ease of participation from anywhere in the world, the opportunity to develop new solutions and technologies, as well as cross-country communication and sharing experiences with each other. Despite the complexity of the projects, the participants of all countries showed perseverance and excellent results.

Agricultural Biotechnology skill winners are:

First place: Yi Xiong Zheng (Expert), Mengbing Li (competitor), Educational institution: Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering; Anastasia Bredikhina (Expert), Nadezhda Krikun (competitor), Educational institution: Borisovka Agromechanical Vocational School;

Second place: Lina Fan (Expert), Meiyao Wang (competitor), Educational institution: Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering.

"I was very pleased to participate in such an event. I want to thank all the Experts who helped us and all the Interpreters. I would like to thank the Competitors. We hope that our cooperation will not end at this event and we will continue to work together," says Maria Kachuro, Head of the workshop "Agricultural Biotechnologies", Kolomna Agricultural College.

"A tremendous amount of work has been done not only by us as the Experts, but also by the competitors. I think they had a lot more responsibility than we did. All the students were very anxious and showed a responsible approach towards their work," says Anastasia Bredikhina, a teacher at Borisovka Agromechanical Vocational School.

City Farming skill winners are:

First place: Nikita Antoniev (Expert), Valery Shatilov (competitor), Educational institution: Moscow State College of Electromechanics and Information Technology;

Second place: Keqiang Wang (Expert), Jianzhong Qian (competitor), Educational institution: Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering;

Third place: Dmitry Baklanov (Expert), Vladimir Ponomarev (competitor).

"I would like to join the words of gratitude of my colleagues. I am very grateful to the hosts for the opportunity to take part in such a great event, as well as to the Interpreters for professional, fast and high-quality translation and communication with our Chinese partners," says Anton Sheremeev, a teacher at the Moscow State College of Electromechanics and Information Technology.

Digital Farming skill winners are:

First place: Alexander Karapuzov (Expert), Igor Pankevich (competitor), Educational institution: Uyar Agricultural Vocational School;

Second place: Alexei Borozentsev (Expert), Ruslan Ruziev (competitor);

Third place: Lin Wang (Expert), Wei Pan (competitor), Educational institution: Jiangsu Polytechnic College of Agriculture and Forestry;

Fourth place: Paul Oppong Kwabena (Expert), Alex Senanu (competitor).

"I would like to thank the hosts, competitors and Experts for their patience and diligence. All of us have managed to do well with the task and organized the event at a high level," says Ravshan Muminov, a teacher at the Uyar Agricultural Vocational School.

The international competition became a friendly tournament between its participants and allowed them to hone their skills, exchange experiences and knowledge, as well as expand the network of foreign colleagues and partners.

"I would like to thank the Russian party on behalf of our agricultural university for hosting the event, as well as the organizing committees of the two countries, Russia and China, for their guiding and leading role in the event," says Lina Fan, a lecturer at Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering.

During the awards ceremony, the Competitors, Experts and hosts shared their opinions on the event and agreed to continue cooperation in their areas to further develop their skills.

 "Competitions like this one are a huge success in terms of exchanging experience and skills between the two countries, developing skills and strengthening friendship between our countries, Russia and China," says Keqiang Wang, a lecturer at Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering.

The hosts expressed their gratitude to the partners of the competition: Autonomous Non-Profit Organization Advanced Vocational Training Centre of the Belgorod region, Institute of Intercultural Communication and International Relations of Belgorod State National Research University, Agroaspect Plus LLC, Research Institute CENTERPROGRAMSYSTEM, Belgorod Industrial College, Korocha Agricultural Vocational School, Geoscan LLC, Timbermash Baikal LLC, as well as the teachers of Borisovka Agromechanical Vocational School, Uyar Agricultural Vocational School, Kolomna Agricultural College named after N.T. Kozlov, Korocha Agricultural Vocational School, Rakitnoye Agrotechnological Vocational School, and Moscow State College of Electromechanics and Information Technology.