Training and development

After graduating in International Trade from Deventer professional university, I started my career at Barenbrug Holland as project manager for the grass seed processing company. My intention was to use the experience acquired during this first project and find a new challenge in a different company to broaden my career development. Now, almost 15 years later, I am still working at Barenbrug and I have no regrets at all. Barenbrug is an ideal company that gives young ambitious professionals many opportunities to develop further in a wide variety of disciplines.

Rob Westerhof, Global Production Manager

Barenbrug invests in depth, with a long-term vision. This is in the ‘genes' of a plant breeding business. The development of a new variety of grass takes 10 to 15 years. Barenbrug invests in its personnel in the same way. Its philosophy is based on training, job rotation and increasing responsibilities. I myself have followed a wide range of courses during and in addition to my work. Barenbrug has always encouraged this. With this training and my experience in various positions, I have now reached the level of Global Production Director.

My training at Barenbrug
In my first five years at Barenbrug, I carried out a succession of jobs, including project manager, assistant works manager and logistics manager of our grass seed processing company in the Netherlands. During these years, I followed a course in business administration and learned about various logistic processes within the company.

After this I was offered the job of head of the commercial department. Obviously, this job had many things in common with my previous one, but the commercial aspect was a new element for me. A few years later, this department merged with the planning department to form a new department, planning & logistics. I was manager of this department for 5 years. During these years, I took several courses, including one in General Management, which taught me a great deal about managing a large department. I also took courses in a number of practical skills, including French, speed reading and writing, business presentation skills and effective negotiating. I have worked as Global Production Director since January 2008 and I will be following a course on political skills during this coming year.

All the courses were suggested either by me or by the management. The philosophy of Barenbrug is that all training contributes to your development and enables you to perform better in your job. A win-win situation, in other words!