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In early 2009, the China Animal Epidemic Disease Traceability System will be implemented in the entire Jilin Province. A very important part of Animal Epidemic Disease Traceability System involves the animal health workers (AHWs) in the collection of animal data at the time of vaccination using the animal identification reader. This reader system is new and is an important and effective tool for information collection. Animal identification readers have already been distributed to each county and township and will be used in the 2009 spring vaccination. To ensure that participants understand the Chinese traceability system to help them assist the country and township officials in the implementation of this program and to ensure that they can competently operate the animal identification readers by the time of the spring vaccination in 2009, the Animal Epidemic Disease Traceability System - The Use and Management of Animal Identification Readers training was successfully conducted in Yanji on the snowy days of January 12th to 13th, 2009. Over the 2 days a total of 91 participants from AEPCC, the Animal Husbandry Stations and Veterinary Stations of each county and township of Yanbian prefecture who attended this training with 25 female and 34 minority participants.
This training was held with the support of the Animal Husbandry Bureau and Animal Epidemic Disease Prevention and Control Center (AEPCC) of Yanbian Prefecture and the Livestock Health Extension Services Project (LHESP). The Jilin Province AEPCC also contributed to the training. The facilitators were Mr. Huang Kuan and Ms. Zhao Dazhuo, Junior CTA of LHESP Jilin Site Office. Mr. Huang Kuan is the director of Fujian Newland Corporation which manufactures the mobile reader system. He has given the animal identification reader trainings throughout China, but it was the first time for him to give the reader training in Jilin province. He has abundant experience in ID reader training and has been involved in the China Animal Epidemic Disease Traceability System framework since its initiation. For this training he not only explained the method to use the readers, but also introduced the general situation and development of the traceability system in China. The other facilitator was Ms.Zhao Dazhuo who introduced the background of traceability systems and the development, use and significance of the traceability systems of several countries with emphasis on the Canadian traceability systems.
The participant evaluations of this training indicated that 93.60% of the participants were fully satisfied with this training. The participants expressed that the facilitators were very excellent and that the group trainers played an important role in this training. The reasons why the participants gave an excellent evaluation for this training are:
1) The thorough planning of the training session and preparation by the trainers. Prior to the training session, five people, the deputy head, Zhang Kui, the director, Han Mingzi and the staff Jin Meihua, and Qiao Qibo of Yanbian AEPCC and Ms. Zhao Dazhuo met to plan the training session. The participants were divided into five groups and each member of the training team took charge of the training of a group during the practical part of training. Before the training Han Mingzi and Zhao Dazhuo, who received Animal Epidemic Disease Prevention Traceability System training held by Jilin province beforehand, trained the other group trainers.
2) The trainers applied the experiences from the first day of training to adjust the second day’s training. The facilitators, group trainers and personnel of LHESP Jilin site office met after the first day’s training and analyzed the training. For the second day some adjustments were made, for example, a) more operational practices were added in Mr. Huang Kuan’s presentation to strengthen the participants’ understanding on the operation of readers; b) five groups became to six groups, Gao Jianhong, CTA of LHESP Jilin site office together with Mr. Huang Kuan tutored the operation of one group; c) based on the experiences from previous training and in order to ensure that the Korean participants learned well, two groups were formed by participants from the Korean minority and tutored by Han Mingzi and Jin Meihua who are Koreans and; d) the tables were put as “U” style which made it easier for the group trainers to tutor their groups.
3) The next reason was the testing of the participants. In order to test and reinforce the knowledge acquired by the participants, the group trainers moved to another group and verified if the participants could operate the readers correctly and in accordance with the training exercises and the operating examples from the AHWs which were listed by Mr. Zhang Kui. The list was very practical and easy to understand, and would benefit the AHWs’ future work and their trainings to the grass roots.
4) The fourth reason was the practical focus of the training and the strong participation of all the attendees. Every trainee was able to operate the equipment personally. They asked questions actively when they met problems during the training course.
Through this training, participants learned new knowledge and information about international and state animal epidemic disease traceability systems. They fully recognized the importance of animal epidemic disease prevention work to maintain public hygiene and food safety. This training was appreciated by the participants and they hoped to have opportunities to attend this type of training in the future. They were very motivated to give this training to the grass roots according to the training methods learned form this training. Mr. Huang Kuan also was impressed by this training. He said,” I have given this presentation at hundreds of trainings in China, but most have been given with a more traditional teaching style. The outcomes of those trainings were less than this training. I have never seen this kind of training with the participatory methods, interactive teaching, enthusiasm and serious training attitude. I will apply the experiences and training methods learned from this LHESP training to future trainings.”
The effectiveness of this training with the presentations in Chinese and group tutoring in Mandarin and Korean is a model that could be used for some future trainings. It also shows that the participatory training method for adult education has taken root and is blossoming in the Yanbian Prefecture setting a solid foundation for further extension activities.
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