A multifunctional auditorium for lectures, practical and laboratory classes, providing new opportunities for organizing the educational process - including the use of interactive technologies and modern teaching formats, was opened at the Samara State Agrarian University (SAU) with funds from JSC Firm "August". For the company, this is already the 16th named classroom, equipped in the country’s agricultural universities as part of a comprehensive program of interaction with specialized educational institutions in order to train young highly qualified personnel who meet the requirements of modern production and the challenges of industry development. For Samara State Agrarian University, a new technological learning space is an important condition for increasing the efficiency and quality of education.
The auditorium, decorated in the corporate style of “Augusta” with the placement of company information stands, is located in the main building of the university and is part of the educational space of the Faculty of Agronomy. The area of the main classroom is 48,3 square meters. m, adjacent to it is an auxiliary space (20,4 sq. m) for completing laboratory equipment and preparing reagents for classes. There are 21 places for students and one teacher place. It is planned to use the auditorium for lectures, practical and laboratory classes in such disciplines as chemistry, agrochemistry, plant protection and quarantine, and soil science. Technical equipment includes complexes of multimedia equipment (computers, video broadcasting system, multifunction laser printer, Wi-Fi router) and laboratory equipment (drying cabinet, acid-resistant cabinet for reagents, muffle furnace, fume hood with a porcelain stoneware work surface, centrifuge, electric water distiller, digital microscope).
“The technical equipment of the classroom provides participants in the educational process with the opportunity to use the most modern tools and teaching formats, including the use of video and photographic materials, conduct seminars, video conferencing sessions with practitioners and teachers involved in a remote format. The latest educational and laboratory equipment makes it possible to increase the clarity and effectiveness of classes and is a necessary tool for consolidating theoretical knowledge in practice,” notes Alexander Ryabtsev, head of the representative office of JSC Firm “August” in Samara.
The company’s cooperation with the Samara State Agrarian University began in 2022, when at the experimental sites of the soybean demolition site of the Grain Soybean Union of the Volga Federal District, as part of a large-scale experiment, an assessment of plant protection systems presented by leading participants in the Russian pesticide market and “Augusta” preparations was carried out, demonstrating the greatest effectiveness in a number of indicators, received high praise from the scientific and expert community. Interaction with the university is carried out in several areas of its educational and scientific activities in the field of protection of field and industrial crops: student practices, research expeditions, open lectures, consulting interaction, etc. In the near future - joint work on the establishment and conduct of scientific and production experiments on the experimental fields of the university.
The area of agricultural land in the Samara region is about 4 million hectares, of which about 2,8 million hectares are arable lands. Among the main tasks facing the farmers of the Middle Volga region are increasing the productivity of cultivated arable land, effectively involving saline and degraded agricultural lands in circulation, minimizing mechanical impact on soils, increasing the supply and content of organic substances in them, reducing the use of clean fallows, the use of waste-free and low-waste agricultural technologies to stabilize and improve the environmental situation. In order to increase production efficiency, high-tech methods of carbon cycle management are being explored to increase the deposition of organic carbon by chernozems. In this regard, agricultural enterprises in the region have an urgent need for highly qualified specialists with deep theoretical knowledge, mastery of modern technologies and digital tools.
In the context of intensive technological development of the agro-industrial complex, the most important condition for training young personnel capable of effectively solving the problems of innovative production is the joint work of universities and leading industry companies that are actively introducing high technologies and creating innovations. JSC Firm "August" carries out large-scale, comprehensive work in this area, collaborating in its field with several dozen educational institutions. The main areas of this activity include targeted training in bachelor’s and master’s programs (with the prospect of employment in the company’s research center and agricultural farms), holding annual agronomic Universiades in leading agricultural universities, a scholarship program (named “Augusta” scholarships for students studying under targeted agreements , and students of the RGAU-MSHA named after K. A. Timiryazev - winners of the Universiade), internships and internships for bachelors and masters in the production departments of the company (in agricultural farms, dairy complexes, agrochemical laboratories, at experimental stations), giving lectures and conducting seminars by company experts, equipment for classrooms.
“On average, we employ every fourth student who has completed an internship with us for a permanent job. As a rule, these are young people who, during their internship, became thoroughly acquainted with their future profession and made a confident choice in its favor. The company is actively committed to cooperation with beginning specialists without experience: we are ready to teach, help, mentor - the main thing is that the person has an active life position and a desire to develop professionally, acquiring new knowledge and experience,” notes the HR Director of JSC Firm “August” Rosa Sukhorukova.