Innovative Skills Transfer for the Development of Agricultural Entrepreneurs Erasmus Project

Project Title

Innovative Skills Transfer for the Development of Agricultural Entrepreneurs

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Agriculture, forestry and fisheries; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The AgriSkills project intends to develop and improve the level of key competences and skills of young adults with precarious conditions from rural areas, with the purpose of developing their own business. We included, beside, young adults, unemployed people, in some partner country, inmates together with the educators from penitentiary, taking into consideration the fact that for reintegration a great source can be the agriculture skills. In some countries the AgriSkills project was especially designed to improve the image of the profession through the learning platform in order to get more young adults back into the sector – as opposed to persons with a criminal background or youth unemployment issues in other countries. For both cases, the outcomes of the AgriSkills project are useful.

In addition to the agricultural skills that this project plans to transfer to the target group, ICT skills, foreign languages, entrepreneurial and social skills are also delivered to disadvantaged young adults from rural and remote areas, in order to raise their level of employability.

The partners of the AgriSkills project contribute to the investigation of the competency profile at their national level, in order to discover the level of knowledge the target group owns about various agricultural areas such as: organic farming and biodiversity, apiculture, agritourism, horticulture, viticulture, fish farming, silk farming, etc., related to the national specific climate and soils conditions. After identifying the training needs of the youths from rural areas, the AgriSkills partnership developed innovative teaching materials, taking into consideration the results of the needs analysis.

Entrepreneurship represents a major factor of economic growth, innovation, competitiveness, workforce occupancy and social integration, being supported at a European level. Therefore, this project intends to generate profitable businesses for young adults with precarious conditions from rural and remote areas, by giving them access not only to agricultural field specific courses, but also to all the necessary information on how to become a successful entrepreneur. The courses developed within the AgriSkills project are provided depending on the identified needs analysis of the young adults, at the national level of the partners. They are also ablt to enable a successful career in the agricultural sector.

Specific objectives of the AgriSkills project are:
– To raise the employability level of young adults from rural and remote areas;
– To bridge the gap between the labor market needs and the lack of knowledge and competences of youths;
– To provide personalized training to young adults, according to the needs identified at national level, to improve the quality of work;
– To help keeping the young adult rural population employed and to prevent migration to big cities;
– To maintain the activity of the rural areas, to conserve and improve traditional ways of existence;
– To develop a competitive labor market in the European agricultural field;
– To improve the living conditions of young adults by offering guidance and support to the target group in developing their own business, thus increasing their level of income;
– To use the AgriSkills partnership’s networks for disseminating the project’s products, to attract the interest of policy makers, stakeholders, potential beneficiaries, to have a high impact, at a European level;
– To transfer not only agricultural skills to young asults with precarious conditions, but also ICT skills, foreign language, entrepreneurial and social skills, with the purpose of creating their own business;
– To increase the occupancy rate of labor, providing jobs for unemployed young adults of the rural communities.
– To offer reintegration support for young inmates.

The project last 36 months and was structured around 4 Intellectual Outputs (IO) with the following responsible partners:

O1 -MAP of needs: needs analysis; lead partner TUM from Germany and co-lead partner CPIP from Romania
O2- AgriSkills Course Package: development of training module; lead partner New EDU from Slovakia and co-lead ARID from Poland
O3- Digital Component: transfer of the training modules to a digital learning platform; lead partner DEFOIN from Spain and co-lead COMU from Turkey
O4- New entrepreneurial virtual initiative GAME: additional digital gamification based approach; lead partner CPIP from Romania and co-lead DEFOIN from Spain

Project Website

http://www.agri-skills.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 312210 Eur

Project Coordinator

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN & Country: DE

Project Partners

• CPIP-COMUNITATEA PENTRU INVATAREA PERMANENTA
• New Edu,n.o
• STOWARZYSZENIE ARID
• CANAKKALE ONSEKIZ MART UNIVERSITESI
• FORMACION PARA EL DESARROLLO E INSERCION, SOCIEDAD LIMITADA