Project Work Packages

Addressing the current and Future skIll needs for sustainability, digitalization,
and the bio-Economy in AgricuLture: European skills agenDa and Strategy

WP1 - Skills needs identification

This Work Package lead by ISEKI aims at establishing a general overview of the labor market in agriculture, forestry and related sector (including the bio-economy) in order to define present and future skills needs.

This will be accomplished through:

Analysis of the state of the art, both on content and on EU instruments for skills transferability (ESCO, ECVET, ECTS), with a database incorporated in the webpage of the project.
Analysis of the state-of-the-art in terms of training content, related to agriculture and forestry
Mobilisation of all relevant stakeholders following a multi-actor approach
Participation of stakeholders to focus groups to define future trends and skills needs
Multiplication of the focus groups outputs through bottom-up surveys
Analysis of the future trends in the topics of the call: Sustainability, Digitalisation and Bioeconomy through scenarios and forecasting analysis.

WP2 - Priorities and strategy design

This Work Package lead by CONFAGRI aims to perform an analysis of the skill gaps in innovation in agriculture and forestry, related to three areas: Sustainability, Bio-economy and Digitalisation, by considering also the soft skills

Compare and prioritize the skills in these domains

Develop a general EU strategy to transfer these skills to agriculture and related sectors.

Develop 7 specific national road maps

Mobilise knowledge around EU with a transferability framework by matching the national road maps with EU tools (CEDEFOP, ESCO, ECVET, ECTS)

WP3 - New tools and training design

This Work Package lead by UNITO aims at creating relevant educational contents and curricula to answer the skill gap identified in WP1 and WP2.

Perform an analysis of the methodologies used during the training

Provide the outline of the curricula that will be later implemented at country level
Develop the apprenticeship scheme, for the work-based period that involves agriculture, agri-food and forestry
Develop the training content for online session
Develop the training content for trainers and in-class activities.

The material will be carefully designed to provide EQF level 4 training in the domains of sustainability, bio-economy and digital skills, to enhance innovation uptake in agriculture, forestry and bio-economy.

The training materials will have a common part related to soft skills, and a regional part to match the skills needed by different countries that will carry the training in Europe.

WP4 - Implementation

This Work Package lead by AERES aims at putting into practice the training content created in WP3, through train-the-trainer and trainees pilots, and implementing the platform made in T1.1 able to display all projects outputs in a friendly manner for future use and uptake at EU level.

This WP also contains the translation of all relevant materials that need to be used nationally. Both trainers and trainees will be selected with a fair procedure that will be established by the partners in WP3.

Farmers, foresters, professional will be able to follow only the modules they are interested in. The people interested in the initial vocational training have to follow all the modules defined in the curricula they are following so as to get accreditation at national and EU level.

The content providers (GAIA, FENACORE, ACTIA, AERES, UNITO, INFOR, EFB, UCLM, CEPI, UHOH, CERTH, PA, ICOS, AP, LVA, CONFAGRI) will provide support on technical issues related to the content during the activities of WP4..

12 teachers will follow the trainer’s toolkit while 70 learners will follow the training. The trainers are first trained and then teach the modules to the trainees.

WP5 - Long term action plan

This Work Package lead by ICOS aims at ensuring the long term sustainability of the strategy and training materials, , its future use and the national roadmaps implementation, as well as the curricula uptake by external VET providers.

These aims will be reached with:

– provision of national and EU regulatory frameworks for training and innovation opportunities
– provision of national and EU funding opportunities design of sustainability – plan and future use of the platform, with exploitation of project results
– plan for future engagement of the stakeholders

WP6 - Quality assurance

This Work Package lead by CERTH aims to ensure the quality of the outputs of the project, be it the skills profiles, trend scenarios, job description, curricula, training material, the in-class training pilots, the strategy or the roadmaps. Within the quality plan, a risk assessment and risk management plan will be made and will be followed during the project.

The Steering Committee will also act as a Quality Committee.

The external validation of the created content will be carried at specific moments during the development of the project. In addition external high profiles experts, reunited in an Advisory Board will give the partners their feedback yearly on the project strategies, curricula and training content and activities.

As part of the quality assessment, Task 6.4 is dedicated to get the ECVET accreditation of some of FIELDS’s initial training.

WP7 - Dissemination and communication

This Work Package lead by ACTIA aims to ensure to reach the largest possible target audience while advertising the project results. ACTIA, with its extensive experience in project dissemination will coordinate this WP. In this WP, the network of the associated partners and of the entity supporting the project (COPA-COGECA, see letter of support in the annex) will also be used for a wider reach of farmer association and cooperatives.

First, a website will be developed to present the project and to promote the project results.

Dissemination plan will be developed by ACTIA with the help of the partners to support the outreach of the project to the target audiences in the participating countries and following successful validation to other countries. National and EU stakeholders will also be included.

The stakeholder engagement and dissemination plan will be carried out through different means and channel for promotion, with the deployment of many activities in the dissemination campaign that will consider: Facebook, Twitter, newsletters, participation at dissemination events, press releases, distribution of leaflets, YouTube videos and AdWords campaign

WP8 - Project Management

With a large consortium of 30 partners, the FIELDS management WP will be very important to ensure an efficient, smooth and regular management of the project.

It aims at ensuring a proper implementation of all tasks while monitoring and mitigating risks.

It will also make sure all financial aspects are well managed according to the Erasmus rules and with the best value for money.

This WP will implement the tools and structures to reach these goals and will be led by UNITO