SKILLS AND QUALITIES EXPECTED BY DAIRY PLANTS FROM DAIRY PROFESSIONALS

In the present study, the employers of dairy professionals in the country, mainly the cooperative and private dairy plants, have given their feedback regarding the quality levels of the existing dairy professionals as well as they have expressed their expectations of a newly appointed dairy professional. However, in this study, the responses from the private sector has been low while the responses from the cooperative dairy sector have been high, hence the following discussion pertains mainly to the cooperative dairy sector of the country. The most important skill/quality aspect desired in a dairy technologist “in general” were - Dairy Technology Knowledge, Work orientated and Honesty/loyalty. In no particular skill /attribute the respondent dairy plants found the existing dairy professionals in the High ratings (60% and above) under “very satisfied', indicating that there is a lot of scopes for improvement to move the ratings to “very satisfied” from “satisfied”. Similarly Skills/ attributes such as Willingness to travel, Problem-solving skills, Willingness to work at Chilling centers and Shifts, Practical knowledge which has received ratings under “dissatisfaction' and ‘average satisfaction' also need to be addressed.In terms of Behavioral attributes the attribute of ‘Problem-solving skills' was most important for all the regions. Remarkably the attribute “Son of a dairy farmer / Son of the soil” did not have much importance in Northern region. To a great extent (55% to 73%), the respondent dairy plants across all regions used to permit Dairy Professional to pursue Further Studies. Out of 207 cooperative dairies around 106 said ‘Yes' there was a need to start a Post-graduation course in Dairy Business Management field. Regarding the modality of the proposed course, around 64% of the respondents suggested the title of the course, should be “MBA in Dairy Business”.