Innovative Blended Learning Toolkit for the Safe Pest Management of Honeybees Erasmus Project

Project Title

Innovative Blended Learning Toolkit for the Safe Pest Management of Honeybees

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: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Agriculture, forestry and fisheries; Open and distance learning

Project Summary

All European honey bees are highly exposed to various negative stress factors. Our society is witnessing a changing situation for bees that has dramatically worsened their living conditions. As a consequence of the reduction of the bee pasture quality and the increased use of pesticides, either from the side of the farmers or the producers of pesticide-based veterinary drugs, which are steadily increasing, we observe that the colonies are constantly losing their ability to cope with pests and various bee diseases. A new era of problems started and there is a need to start treating the bees in a different way, because if beekeepers and farmers continue constantly to increase the doses of pesticides, honeybees no longer can support them and honey products lose their reputation of natural products „good-for-health“.
The overall project goal was to improve the teaching content in the project partner organizations with a nationwide outreach and to strengthen the competences and professional skills of beekeeping teachers in Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia. The project coordinator was the Secondary Vocational School Pod Banosom (Slovakia), which is the main educational institution for beekeepers in Slovakia. The Slovak Association of Beekeepers and the Czech Association of Beekeepers, which associate more than 90% of all registered beekeepers in these countries, participated in the project through communication activities during pilot training courses and conferences. The Austrian partner Ecodesign Company GmbH played a unique role in the project as this organization owns the high quality expertise in the new chemical-free treatment methods of bees and also owns the efficient, tested and scientifically approved device, Varroa Controller, which has been applied in Austria for almost 10 years now. The other Austrian project partner Mehrdafon-Bienenliebe Imkercentrum GmbH supported the project with experience in vocational dual education system and trainings for not only hobby, but also master beekeepers.
The BLESABEE project helped to increase the competences and skills of teachers involved in the beekeeping vocational education and training in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Austria. The project involved 40 beekeeping teachers and indirectly more than 800 beekeeping trainers and technicians of veterinary doctors and beekeepers in the Czech and Slovak Republics who participated in multiplication events and seminars taking place within the project.
The main outputs and achievements of the project are new educational materials for beekeeping schools and centers available in a form of a new educational website (www.blesabee.online) and a textbook “HOW TO MANAGE AND MAINTAIN HEALTHY BEES”, which was awarded by the Gold Medal at the International Congress Apimondia 2019 in Montreal, Canada. This textbook briefly discussed both, the stress factors threatening the bees and the key aspects contributing to their well-being. Moreover, it focuses especially on strategies to keep healthy bees by avoiding chemicals in the bee hives. The interested users can read, watch and share the best beekeeping practices from this textbook for free. The learning material contains QR codes for easy access to short beekeeping training videos and testimonials. The innovative part of the project in relation to other existing beekeeping projects was the process of creation of new course, which brought together scientists and practitioners and which has been expanded from a regional to a global context via international beekeeping congress and competition in Montreal (Canada) Apimondia 2019.
The second output is the approval of new veterinary methods of treatment bees against bee diseases and pests, which were successfully submitted and integrated by the state veterinary authorities into a legal system in the Czech and Slovak Republics. At the same time, a new veterinary device, Varroa Controller, has been certified by the veterinary authorities in both countries, which was necessary for enabling of safe and effective non-chemical treatment of bees.
The third output created within the project is PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR BEEKEEPING INSTRUCTORS, which describes the Austrian beekeeping education system, including the dual vocational system, with particular emphasis on the training of apprentices and beekeeping masters. The guide can serve as an inspiration and blueprint for the next upper education level for beekeepers in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
To provide sustainability of the project the new funding schemes for education and training were already put at place within the national beekeeping programmes of the EU in Czech and Slovak republic for the years 2019-2021. This project created solid basis for an ongoing cooperation among beekeeping organizations involved, it has significantly increased the number of knowledge exchange among the experts involved and it also established the foundations to extend activities to other European countries.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 161763,38 Eur

Project Coordinator

Stredna odborna skola & Country: SK

Project Partners

• mehrdafon GmbH
• ECODESIGN COMPANY ENGINEERING & MANAGEMENT CONSULTANCY GMBH
• Slovensky zvaz vcelarov
• CSV, z.s., okresní organizace Zlín