As part of the course on Agri-Food Industries Facilities, as a practical class, Emilio Casuso, director of the degree in Agricultural and Food Industries Engineering (IIAA) offered by the Universidad Europea del Atlántico (European University of the Atlantic, UNEATLANTICO), took his students of Agri-Food Engineering and Industrial Organization Engineering (IOI) to a feed mill, whose construction was designed and managed by Casuso.
During the visit, they were told how the factory is managed. It has been modernized to such an extent that it has gone from needing fourteen workers to needing only one computer and someone to control it. The students saw the facilities, and the reality that their teacher had previously explained to them.
Casuso explained that “no matter how detailed an explanation is and how many videos you see, it is not comparable to reality,” and therefore decided to go deep with his students in what may be their work in the future. The university maintains an agreement with the AgroCantabria cooperative, so students can also do their internships there.
Although it was not the students’ first outing during school hours, it was their first contact with that feed mill. There have been other instances in the past when, as part of the Nestlé program , they have been able to attend companies and farms within the dairy sector, thus carrying out 22-week internships.
Also, within the Nestlé program, they did another activity, in which they visited the largest cheese factory in Spain, Entrepinares in Valladolid. They have several plants in different Spanish cities, handling large quantities of milk. They visited the two centers in this city: the fully robotized logistics center and the cheese factory. There they met a former student of UNEATLANTICO, Kimi Bencosme, who recently graduated got a contract in the company and accompanied them throughout the visit.
“Contact with the reality of things is fundamental,” concluded the teacher in charge of the outing.