The Andreas Hermes Academy (AHA) helps farmers strengthen their entrepreneurial soft skills. By offering advanced courses, the Academy makes it possible for farmers to focus on their innovative skills even though they are busy running their farm.

The innovation training of AHA is about the qualification of human beings on three levels.

Firstly, the Academy offers training for farmers so that they may find their individual way to personal development and the development of their farms.

Secondly, AHA has introduced training for advisors so that they can develop competencies as advisor, coach and moderator in order for them to match the development process of the farmers.

And finally, both farmers and advisors are educated in how they influence each other to create even more success.

Innovation Is A Competitive Resource

New challenges for farmers and changing conditions have made it necessary to create new forms of building capacities for farmers. Particularly, the criticism against agriculture in Germany prompted the impulse for a new kind of training that enables advisors to support farmers in their work on public relations.

In the face of these challenges, the goal of the advisors as well as the farmers is to make advising more efficient. This is accomplished by the AHA training concept which gives advisors coaching capacities.

Activities and results for the training involve:

  • Creating training tools especially for the farmer’s training
  • Adapting tools from other businesses to suit agriculture

The Course Has Evolved

In the late 1980s, a former organization of the Andreas Hermes Academy introduced an advanced vocational training for entrepreneurs. Mr. Gerd Lohmöller was the creative and visionary head of this training organization for farmers. He created an advanced vocational training which was innovative in several ways.

”There is not just one way for everyone but for everyone a way.” – Dr. Gerd Lohmöller

Over the years, the training course has been adjusted in order to meet the new challenges that farmers are dealing with. Currently the training course focuses on 3 pillars of success: individuality, structure and vision.

The AHA Is Aided

In order to raise awareness among farmers of the benefits of the education program, the Chambers of Agriculture in Germany support the AHA by disseminating the ideas of advanced vocational training in agriculture.

So far, more than 16,000 agricultural entrepreneurs have participated in the training course.