Supporting access to training and qualification of people with disabilities through development of VET course on Ecological Vegetable Gardening based on ECVET learning outcomes Erasmus Project

Project Title

Supporting access to training and qualification of people with disabilities through development of VET course on Ecological Vegetable Gardening based on ECVET learning outcomes

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); Access for disadvantaged; Agriculture, forestry and fisheries

Project Summary

The last 10-15 years have seen an increase in interest in organic production in the EU, which is due to the growing demand for organic products worldwide. The dynamic development of organic farming in recent years and the growing number of occupied areas and the number of farmers in the sector determine the need for training in this area. Ecological vegetable gardening mastered by adults with learning/cognitive disabilities is a novel concept. While ecological gardening, in general, is increasingly becoming popular, the actual training towards such gardening is barely existent, and entirely non-existent when we consider as a target group to be trained adults with learning/cognitive disabilities.
The ECOGARD project aimed to enhance the access for all to vocational education and training (VET) and to support the raising of the improved qualification level of people with learning difficulties (participating as VET learners) in the field of ecological (organic) vegetable gardening which is one of the leading market areas in EU. This was not existing in the national classification of VET professions so far on the national and EU levels. The partnership achieved this by the development of a new occupational profile of “Eco-vegetable gardening worker”, related curriculum, training modules, and (pre-, post-, and self-) assessment mechanisms.

The main objectives of the project were:
– Creating a VET training course to train teachers how to train students including those with learning/cognitive disabilities in becoming experts in ecological vegetable gardening, and as such also becoming experts in their own rights and able to pass their knowledge to other peers.
– Supporting students with learning/cognitive disabilities in acquiring and developing key and transversal competences (social, civic, interpersonal, etc.) to foster employability, as well as elevate entrepreneurial skills among these VET learners towards professional development (social entrepreneurship).
– Promoting social inclusion as this profession necessitate inclusion in the society, such as providing good and best practices training to VET students (including those with disabilities), thus embracing inclusion and diversity within the society.
– Preparatory steps towards accreditation and update on the existing VET subjects with this novel job profile and its VET course.
The project also offered the VET training through a novel MOBILE LEARNING which content is a very powerful base for supporting engagement, the participation of VET learners, and accessibility (especially for those learners with disabilities who cannot physically attend a face to face training sessions due to environmental accessibility problems).

The ECOGARD project developed, implemented, and disseminated and exploited the following intellectual outputs:
IO1: “Train the trainer” – Curriculum and training handbook on the provision of ecological (organic) vegetable gardening training (ECVET based) for VET trainer/teachers (funded by PMI)
IO2: Training course on ecological vegetable gardening (ECVET based) for the students with learning disabilities
IO3: Illustrated eco-vegetable gardening handbook
IO4: Social entrepreneurship skills guidelines
IO5: Ecological (organic) Vegetable Gardening Worker job profile
IO6: Accessible mobile learning application for Android devices (funded by PMI)

The achieved intellectual results of the project were 6, of which 4 were approved for funding, and IO1 and IO6 were developed in the form of self-participation and additionally funded by funds from PMI.

The final versions of the Intellectual outputs are available via: https://ecogardening.eu/elearning/

As direct target users, we involved VET trainers in the area of (organic) vegetable gardening, VET teachers who want to introduce Eco-vegetable gardening in their curricula, VET Students with learning/cognitive disabilities, VET Schools with garden in their training profiles, SMEs active in ecological gardening. Beneficiaries of the project outcomes were also employers, SMEs, NGOs of people with disabilities, Governmental educational institutions in the field of agriculture (Ministries, National VET agencies, directorates), Wider community (society) as final received of Eco-vegetable gardening production.

The main impact of this novel VET course attained is the improvement of the (pre-) qualification of long-term unemployed people (including those with disabilities) who have a similar existing educational background in the field of gardening, seeds, and crop fields and would like further to extend it. This also contributed to the extension of the training offered by VET providers on the national and EU levels (ensured by the language versions of all intellectual outputs: EN, BG, SL, and TR).

Transferability potential: the material is suitable also to be applied with other disadvantaged groups on the labour market such as refugees, long term unemployed people, low skilled and NEETs.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 276352,65 Eur

Project Coordinator

VU PO AGROBIZNES I RAZVITIE NA REGIONITE – PLOVDIV & Country: BG

Project Partners

• CANAKKALE ONSEKIZ MART UNIVERSITESI
• PHOENIXKM BVBA
• ZGURA-M EOOD
• INSTITUT ZA TRAJNOSTNI RAZVOJ
• “Amitica” Ltd.
• International Association for Research and Development of Vocational Education and Training
• Complex for social services “St.George”