Integrating silver knowledge from agroecology into the VET systems Erasmus Project

Project Title

Integrating silver knowledge from agroecology into the VET systems

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Open and distance learning; Agriculture, forestry and fisheries

Project Summary

Farming sector employs 22 million people in EU, being a main employer in consortium countries such as Bulgaria (20%) or Greece (11%), with 9 on every 10 people working alone (farm holder) or with the family.
In 2018, 60% of farm managers on the EU’s 10.5 million holdings were older than 55 years. Only about 10% farm managers were below 40 years old, and these farmers have some agricultural training, while only 3% of farmers older than 65 year olds have any training.

In EU, 70% of farm managers only have practical experience, less than 10% have full agricultural training, and the rest (22%) have basic agricultural training. Skills are mainly acquired through transference of experience from senior farmers into family members.

PROJECT OBJECTIVE is to improve the training attractiveness of the agroecology VET, providing teachers with tools with capacity to attract farmers to higher levels of education, and also recover silver knowledge which can be otherwise lost.

Agrosilver Value is a mix of PARTNERS coming from countries with different profiles of training, and different profiles of farmers:
– Chambre of Agriculture Lot-et-Garonne (FR) is a leading region in agriculture, with younger and more formally-trained farmers than the EU average.
– Ekologykm (BG) is a SME experienced in VET for ecology, sustainable agriculture and innovation. Similar activities to Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (EL).
– FundeuTAD (ES) is a SME experienced in VET, data processing and video processing.
– Gozo Ministry (MT) and Extremadura Government (ES) participates with the corresponding department of agriculture training.
– INPLA (ET) is a SME expert in impact monitoring and quality evaluation.

ACTIVITIES. In order to achieve the objectives, and deliver the results, the project includes 8 Group of Tasks:
– 4 transversal (coordination, quality control, monitoring, dissemination).
– GT2 for preparation
– GT3, GT4 and GT5 as core developers of outputs.

GT3 DATA PLATFORM (M1 to M9)
Where consortium will carry out the video recording of practices and knowledge, both from famers (silver especially) and teachers, with a following process of data structuring and indexing into the data-platform.
GT4 SILVERKNOWS SOFTWARE (M2 to M16)
Where the SilverKnows Software is developed, and all the videos processed into a data mine.
GT5 RECOGNITION TOOL, LEARNING UNITS AND PILOT COURSES (M16 to M30)
Where the consortium generates learning units and creates a pilot course for teachers. Partners will also promote recognition methodology and generate software manuals and users documents.

The final results to be achieved for the project are linked to the project objectives and the activities:
– Result 1. To introduce opportunities for the initial and continuous professional development of agricultural VET teachers.
– Result 2. Making agricultural training more attractive.
– Result 3. Accelerating the share of knowledge among agricultural VET teachers.
– Result 4. The increase on the use of digital technologies among agricultural VET teachers.
– Result 5. To increase the recovery of farmers to the formal teaching.
– Result 6. Ameliorate the role that the education has in the fight against the global warming.

The main intellectual outputs assuring the mentioned results are:
– INTELLECTUAL RESULT/OUTPUT 1. DATA PLATFORM
Compilation of videos related to agroecology, based on the real experiences and testimonies of farmers and teachers (more than 120 videos and 1000 minutes).
– INTELLECTUAL RESULT/OUTPUT 2. SILVERKNOWS SOFTWARE
SilverKnows reads the contents of the videos, converting the audio into encoded information, in any of the country languages, allowing users (teachers) to search for specific content, based on multiple filters and key information, in order to obtain customized reports on the training content available.
– INTELLECTUAL RESULT/OUTPUT 3. LEARNING UNITS AND SOFTWARE TUTORIALS
In order to test and obtain feedback on the usability of the software, one online pilot course will be prepared.
– INTELLECTUAL RESULT/OUTPUT 4. RECOGNITION METHODOLOGY
To validate agroecology knowledge of farmers, based on video recording, which will be processed by the software.

QUANTITATIVE IMPACTS INDICATORS
> 170 project participants with increased skills thanks to direct project actions
> 50 organizations with increased skills thanks to direct involvement in technical project activities
> 500 participants in project actions

QUALITATIVE IMPACTS INDICATORS
1.000 minutes of videos (120 videos) produced by partners and 100 new minutes every year by external users.
100 new users will register every year
5 farmers using the recognition methodology and reincorporated to VET system.
40 teachers improving their teaching contents and methods
> 500 sessions per year in the software
> 500 visualizations or video downloads
> 300 downloads of the contents
> 5 media appearances /year and > 30 news appearing in websites.
> 1.000 site visits/year.

Project Website

http://agrosilver.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 274666 Eur

Project Coordinator

CHAMBRE DEP AGRICULTURE DU LOT & GARONNE & Country: FR

Project Partners

• FundeuTAD
• Inpla, OÜ
• JUNTA DE EXTREMADURA
• MEDITERRANEAN AGRONOMIC INSTITUTE OF CHANIA
• EKOLOGIJAKM OOD
• MINISTRY FOR GOZO