Upgrading the Agricultural Sector with Skills in Regenerative Agriculture Erasmus Project

Project Title

Upgrading the Agricultural Sector with Skills in Regenerative Agriculture

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: Environment and climate change; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Agriculture, forestry and fisheries

Project Summary

BACKGROUND
The main purpose of our project is to design an innovative vocational curriculum on Regenerative Agriculture, which will provide learners skills and knowledge to implement sustainable cultivation methods, therewith giving impetus to transform agricultural practices and landscapes.
In the EU, more than 90% of the fields are cultivated conventionally. This type of cultivation creates serious problems for human health, the climate, biodiversity, soils’ fertility, freshwater bodies and the ecosystem as a whole. (UNEP Foresight Brief, 013, May 2019)
Regenerative Agriculture with its subtopic Permaculture, responds to all above-mentioned problems as it is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to farming systems focusing on topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, supporting bio-sequestration, increasing resilience to climate change and enhancing soil fertility.

OBJECTIVES
Our overarching objective is to promote, facilitate and accelerate the global transition to regenerative food, farming and land management in order to restore climate stability, increase biodiversity, rebuild soil fertility and produce healthy food.
Therefore, the project aims to:
1) close the skills gap in agriculture education by providing a web-based training on Regenerative Agriculture. The course will enable learners to apply alternative cultivation methods, therewith equipping them with the competences to respond to the challenges the agricultural sector is experiencing.
2) Inform VET authorities and policy makers about regenerative agriculture thereby giving impetus to include teaching contents on the subject into national framework curricula.
3) Integrate the course into curricula of agricultural VET providers, training companies and HEIs.
4) Conduct an awareness raising campaign on national and European level giving policy makers, VET providers, farmers and the general public a coherent picture of the state of the art of regenerative agriculture and help improve the perception about alternative farming, its benefits and the possibilities to upscale measures.

TARGET GROUPS
The RegAgri4Europe VOOC will empower a new generation of farmers. The course is ultimately targeted to apprentices and other interested persons with an agricultural background (end users).
Furthermore, the project targets two additional groups:
a) Persons, who actively participate in the development of training curricula and examination queries for agricultural vocation on national level. These include public authorities for vocational education, members of national VET (sub)committees, members of specialist groups, representatives of training networks and policy makers. By including VET representatives and policy makers, the project gives impetus to include contents taught in the project course into the national framework curricula for agricultural education. In doing this, the consortium ensures the achievement of highest possible impact and sustainability of its outputs.
b) VET providers in agriculture, training companies and higher education institutions offering agricultural education. By engaging training providers, the consortium ensures the integration of the course content into curricula of independent education bodies and therewith achieves optimal exploitation results.

RESULTS
IO1: Status Analysis on Regenerative Agriculture in today’s agriculture, education sector, public awareness and industrial demand.
The major aim of the status analysis is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the present situation of Regenerative Agriculture/Permaculture in today’s agriculture, education sector, public awareness and industrial demand.
IO2: Development of RegAgri4Europe Training Programme
The RegAgri4Europe training programme includes: Course catalogue and handbook, reading material, video lessons, learning activities, a virtual library, assessment exams, certificate in all partner languages and English.
IO3: RegAgri4Europe Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) – creating an accessible Vocational Open Online Course (VOOC) containing the training and assessment material developed. It also contains a Virtual Community space to support community interactions among learners, professors and teaching assistants.
IO4: RegAgri4Europe International Accreditation and Transferability

The project also includes a Learning Teaching Training Activity on the Permaculture farm Schloss Tempelhof providing work-based learning experience to participants.

IMPACT
• Learners’ acquisition of important skills and knowledge on Regenerative Agriculture
• Improved digital competences of educators and learners
• Integration of RegAgri4Europe course content into national VET programs and curricula
• Improved perception, awareness and understanding of Regenerative Agriculture by all stakeholders and the general public
• Influencing political approaches and measures towards a sustainable agricultural turnaround

Project Website

http://regagri4europe.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 276018 Eur

Project Coordinator

CEFE International GmbH & Country: DE

Project Partners

• MITROPOLITIKO COLLEGE ANOYMI EKPAIDEYTIKI ETAIRIA
• AKKREDITIERUNGS,CERTIFIZIERUNGS – UND QUALITATS- SICHERUNGS- INSTITUT(AQUIN) EV
• SKYBRIDGE PARTNERS OUTSOURCING SERVICES I.K.E.
• Safe Food Advocacy Europe
• Schloss Tempelhof e.V.
• AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS