The main goal of the NARA project is to improve the professionalization of young farmers in Europe through the analysis of training needs in six key areas for this sector (Food security; Technologies postharvest; Commercialization and logistic; Soil, water and byproducts; Packaging; and Entrepreneurship, and the development of the training units of this subjects through an e-platform, as well as to get the official validation of this training for agriculture in different European countries. • Target groups: The target group of this project are youth agriculture workers and agrofood professionals entrepreneurs (and SMEs) in European countries, who are developing an economic farming activity and need to increase their skills and their knowledge to improve the competences to make their business more competitive and sustainable, and developing new agrofood business to increase the wealth and enterprise development in horticulture sector or specialize in agrofood business to develop more competitive enterprises. • Methodology Through the NARA project will develop a transnational analysis, comparative and diagnosis of the training needs and offer, with the obtained results in the previous WP a competence matrix will be developed, that will allow a transnational Competence Profile. Subsequently the training modules were developed in the six areas mentioned. The learning outcomes for these units are the same among the partner systems and hence can be recognised. The learning outcomes will be defined according to ECVET (knowledge, skills and competences) and including the level (NQF, ISCED and EQF) and the credit ECVET points. • NARA project will achieve the following objectives: • Analysis and identification of training needs of farmers in subjects of complementary and transversal knowledge not covered by official teachings for the agricultural sector. • Improve the skills and professionalism of European farmers and agricultural structures. • Encourage the development of new business initiatives (agro-business) and employment (youth, unemployed and women) in rural areas. • Support the development of young people and the establishment of population in rural areas. • Improve the management of farms and their economic and environmental sustainability. • Perform validation of the training modules in the official training courses for the agricultural sector. • Improve the conditions of farmers in the Food Chain (to minimize imbalances and disadvantage of farmers with intermediate distributors and other agents in the food and agriculture). • Increased profitability of farms and purchasing power of farmers. • Expand export opportunities and new markets. • The consortium The consortium formed for the NARA project plans to cover all activities and areas of expertise of raised e- platform of training in the project. PCTAD is a community of innovation and a meeting point for institutions, and companies collaborating in R&D&I and knowledge transfer. DISPA - Dipartimento di Scienze delle Produzioni Agrarie e Alimentari, University of Catania, is a department of the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Catania (Italy) and employs about 80 people. MARKTEMENTORO has extensive experience in providing policy advice on all levels of government relating to social development issues, local and regional development. CRP Henri Tudor’s research departments have developed recognised competences in environmental, information and communication technologies and in business . Tecnopackaging is a technology-based company founded in 2010, specialised in the production of advanced nanocomposites and blends, including the development of plastic parts and packaging. • Project outputs NARA project will develop the following intellectual outputs: - A training analysis, based on the offer (contents and methodology) and training needs of the sector. - A comparative matrix of competencies profiles will be defined in alignment with the European definitions. The comparative matrix of generic competencies enhances the comparison of learning outcomes in VET, facilitating credit transfer and the acknowledgment of prior learning. -A transnational competence profiles will be based on the analysis of Competence Matrix (O2-A1) by identifying competencies that are relevant to the agriculture sector across Europe. -And the learning – teaching material modules. First of all, an E-learning methodology will be developed and adapted for the e-portfolio, where the following modules will be available: • Food security and postharvest technologies, • transport and logistics, • Soil, Water & by products, • Packaging, • Entrepreneurship. -Finally an E-Learning platform and accreditation tool will be developed on the basis of the previous intellectual outputs requirements.
Agriculture is one of the most important socio-economic activities in many of the countries of the European Union and a key sector for the development and sustainability of rural areas. In the last decades, rural villages have suffered a dramatic depopulation and also have other difficulties like territorial imbalances and lack of generational relief. Unemployment in rural areas mainly affects services and agriculture. In addition,the following circumstances usually occur in the agricultural sector: • There is a large proportion of small farms, where farmers only devote part of their time to farming, which makes their professionalization difficult. • Spatial dispersion of enterprises hinders access to training • Average age of farmers is very high and with low levels of formal education • Predominance of eventual work. The precariousness of casual workers makes difficult to provide adequate training. • There is an increasing need to incorporate new contents related to management due to changes in the norms of quality or food safety, environment and prevention of occupational risks. Faced with the challenge of operating in a larger but more competitive market, it is necessary to consolidate those factors that help preventing the abandonment of the agrarian activity, to improve the training of its professionals and to increase competitiveness. Among them it is specially important the design of training activities for a productive sector characterized by the lack of training opportunities adapted to their particularities. The main objective of the NARA project has been to contribute to the improvement of the professionalization of young farmers in Europe, especially those operating in the horticultural sector. For doing this, the project partners have worked for 2 years in the development of an online training platform that offers free training in six cross-cutting areas of high interest to the target audience: food security; Post-harvest technologies; Logistics and marketing; Soil, water and by-products; Packaging, and entrepreneurship. The consortium is composed of five entities that have expert knowledge in the different topics that are addressed in the training: • Fundación Parque Científico Tecnológico Aula Dei: expert in food security and post-harvest technologies • Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Catania: expert in techniques of soil management and conservation agriculture • Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology: Expert in environmental technologies, information and logistics • Tecnopackaging: Spanish company expert in packaging for the agri-food sector. • Marketmentoro: Cypriot company expert in entrepreneurship. In the framework of the project, the following activities have been carried out: - Analysis of the related training offer in the countries of the participating partners - Analysis of training demands expressed by the target audience in the different countries - Preparation of a comparative matrix of farmers' competences in the different representated countries - Elaboration of a transnational matrix of the competences acquired by the training offered through the NARA project. - Development of six training modules in the six areas of knowledge mentioned above. - Design and construction of an online training platform hosting the developed content The main result of the project has been the design and construction of an online platform that offers open and free training for the horticultural sector. The platform is available through the link: http://training.naraproject.eu/login/index.php In addition, other goals have been achieved which have contributed to increase the impact of the project and are detailed below: - Direct contact of the project partners with more 350 farmers and / or students in the agricultural field - Direct contact of the project partners with more than 200 entities, different types of associations and agrarian federations, regional, national institutions, etc., that have collaborated in the dissemination of the project - Good impact of the project in the media and in agri-food magazines - Presentation of the project in the V National Forum of Rural Development, within the framework of the International Fair of Agricultural Machinery 2016 in Zaragoza, España. In the long term, the NARA project will also contribute to: • Encourage the development of new agro-enterprises in rural areas. • Improve the management of the farms and their economic and environmental sustainability. • Increase the profitability of farms and the purchasing power of farmers. • Expand export opportunities and access to new markets.