In spring, the participants of the 127th Herrschinger Basic Course were given a ceremonial send-off at the House of Bavarian Agriculture. Among the 46 young farmers was the former Ukrainian trainee Oleksii Martyniuk.

Oleksii Martyniuk was the best of the year of the Ukrainian AKI Trainee Program 2020 (in cooperation with the FABU project). Due to his excellent achievements, motivation, interest, improvement of German language skills at the host dairy farm Ralf u. Claudia Klenk GbR from Murrhardt, Oleksii Martyniuk took first place and won the opportunity to participate in the Herrschinger Basic Course. In 2022, Oleksii Martyniuk was able to attend the Basic Course thanks to partial financing by the House of Bavarian Agriculture and AgrarKontakte International e.V. through sponsorships.

Already as an enrolled student of power engineering at the National University of Vital and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv, Oleksii Martyniuk came to Bavaria in January 2022. Many interesting social, cultural, economic and political topics as well as excursions and sightseeing were included in the program of the Basic Course.

AKI reports on Oleksii Martyniuk's first-hand impressions:

Oleksii Martyniuk: "... Agriculture is my second profession. When I joined the Basic Course, I was a bit afraid of how everything would turn out because of my knowledge of German - but my fears were unnecessary. From the first day of getting to know each other, I quickly found a common language with the other course participants. I was the only Ukrainian in the course. There were 46 participants in total: All from Bavaria and only two from Baden-Württemberg. Both the participants and the organizers always helped me when I had questions.

The Basic Course in Herrsching was a great experience for me, during which I made new acquaintances and also acquired new knowledge in communication. At the Basic Course, I not only expanded my knowledge in the field of agriculture, but also gained many interesting impressions. Thanks to study trips to Berlin, Munich, Nuremberg and the hut weekend in the Chiemgau Alps, I gained additional impressions of Germany. 

In addition to the newly acquired agricultural knowledge, the basic course has developed our personal skills through joint project work, rhetoric courses, teamwork and games. We listened to, analyzed and discussed interesting lectures given by course guests. We also developed our personal skills through creativity courses (singing, theater, playing musical instruments, photography course, drawing course) and sports courses (karate, soccer, gymnastics, yoga). Thanks to the Basic Course, I had the opportunity to get to know the original culture, beauty, history, traditions and country feeling of Bavaria. Moreover, my new friends showed me how to spend my free time with a glass of real Bavarian beer.

The Herrschinger Basic Course was a wonderful experience for me. I can definitely say that the time we spent here was good for us! As for my future plans, I will continue to study in the field of energy. Energy and agriculture are closely related in my opinion, so I plan to study both directions more deeply in the future. The Basic Course gave me the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and gain invaluable experience. I am sure that I will need these in the future!"