FARMTrain – the innovative hands-on training program on farms for adult learners Erasmus Project

Project Title

FARMTrain – the innovative hands-on training program on farms for adult learners

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Social entrepreneurship / social innovation; Agriculture, forestry and fisheries; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

“Anyone can get a ticket on the FARMTrain”

The main objective of this project is to create an innovative hands-on training program for adult learners (FARMTrain) in order to accept shared responsibility to keep our rural-urban areas connected and alive in a sustainable way. The hands-on training provides mentoring and educational opportunities directly on the farm level between farmers and interns on training farms. FARMTrain will be open to anyone regardless of their different backgrounds and education. The range of composition of production enterprises as well as geographical distribution play important roles in developing proper training and educational capacities – these programs must be adequate for adult learners delivering practical, useful, hands-on knowledge. It is emphasised here because most of the trainings or advisory services in European countries are very theoretical; there is often a “reality gap” between trainers and learners. The different, innovative approach in FARMTrain program is the practical guidance on how to build the internship on farms and how to transfer farmer’s knowledge to adult learners (interns). The novelty of this training program lies in its content – it teaches farmers how to gain competences to become mentors – to improve their soft skills in interaction with interns and vice versa interns are motivated to have shared responsibility for agroecological systems and environmental protection in general. The innovation of the project lies also in its scope as it does not focus solely on professionals but it also involves exchange of knowledge between professionals and other stakeholders such as hobby farmers, community or urban gardeners.

The structure of the innovative hands-on training program for adult learners (FARMTrain) is based on an European universal program which will be compile by the intellectual outputs of this project. The national modifications of FARMTrain program will allow adjusting the program to the exact needs of the target groups both in partner countries and also in countries not involved in this partnership. It provides the knowledge and skills on how to establish a new way of cooperation with different types of stakeholders, how to transfer the skills among adult learners on training farms, on hands-on learning and on training seminars to create more opportunities to learn shared responsibilities. Altogether, the project will support the educational innovation in farming sector and beyond, as it will teach farmers to become well-educated mentors with competences in the exchange of good practices. It is aimed at producing, sharing and enriching resources for interns (both general and technical) about farming skills and environmental protection within the agro-ecosystem towards various groups of stakeholders.

We also anticipate that the national FARMTrain program will launch up the increase in number of training farms not only in countries of this partnership but Europe-wide. This added value will not only support the development of other training farms and their networking on FARMTrain Platform. FARMTrain program can be a useful aid in long-life adult education and training, as well as an inspiration in setting up new cooperatives and creative farmer associations. The network of training farms with an innovative, hands-on program (FARMTrain) can be very resilient as it has developed from a serious need and with strong participation of farmers. We want the FARMTrain program to be socially inclusive and open for a broad scale of adult learners to join the program in the future.

Project Website

http://farmtrain.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 222130 Eur

Project Coordinator

ASOCIACE MISTNICH POTRAVINOVYCH INICIATIV OPS & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• FORSCHUNGSGESELLSCHAFT DIE AGRONAUTEN (FDA) EV
• AGROOIKOPOLIS ELLINIKO DIKTIO AGROOIKOLOGIAS DIATROFIKIS KYRIARXIAS KAI PROSVASIS STI GH
• ASOCIATIA ECO RURALIS-IN SPRIJINULFERMIERIL OR ECOLOGICI SI TRADITIONALI