Developing Education Tools for Healthy & Creative Food Regions DECREE is motivated by two closely-related challenges. Firstly, chronic EU obesity figures (OECD) show that more than half (52%) of the adult population in the EU is overweight or obese. Secondly, food poverty is on the rise in Europe. 2013 statistics show that 116 million Europeans are now at risk of poverty or social exclusion and 40 million are suffering from severe material deprivation. It is acknowledged that the cheapest food is the unhealthiest food. These 2 clear challenges represent enterprise opportunities for Food SMEs across the EU to innovate to develop healthier, affordable food and new food distribution channels. However, these SMEs have been slow to respond as they report they do not have the professional capacity or skills base to innovate/orchestrate change in the entrepreneurship, development, production & marketing of “healthier food”. Thus DECREE has 3 clear and simple objectives: 1. To develop a toolkit to assist & train regional stakeholders to create a Healthy Food Regional Partnership. This toolkit is called the "Healthy Food Partnership Toolkit" and will comprise a programme of learning actions and guidance on how to create a healthy food region. 2. To create a set of open educational resources to be delivered via an online course for Food SME Owners & Employees. This course is called “Creative ways to produce, market and distribute healthy food” and will focus on teaching Owners and employees how to implement greater innovation and creativity in their business. 3. To test an innovative industry based employability training module with a cohort of young unemployed. This will be industry based learning delivered by Food SME Owners through providing practical placements for learners who will acquire new skills for new employment/self employment. The main focus of the project is to provide innovative, easily accessible and career-oriented continuing VET (C-VET) for employees, employers, independent Food entrepreneurs. However, to provide applied knowledge to the partnership one adult education strand is included providing an opportunity for unemployed young people in competence development. We focus specifically on how a VET response can be applied in a regional food sector economy. Why a regional approach? A creative entrepreneurial regional food economy can have profound implications for sustainable economic development. Healthy foods with low food miles represent a very tangible economic opportunity which could reward rural agricultural communities and food firms that can produce healthy, affordable and accessible food products. As a result of our project, the 150 learners (100 Employees in Food SMEs and 50 unemployed young people) who participate in the 'Creative Ways to Produce, Market & Distribute Healthy Foods' course and the “Applied industry learning opportunities” will grow confident in their understanding and application of creativity and innovation as relevant to the Food Businesses and will improve the competitiveness of the Business or become self-employed entrepreneurs or gain employment within the food Industry, because their skills and knowledge are more suited. A particularly innovative aspect of our proposal is the creation of five Healthy & Creative Food Region Partnerships. This new strategy involves bringing together stakeholders in the food sector, enterprise support, education and economic development - such as VET providers, universities & colleges, food representative bodies, enterprise development agencies and local authorities) - to jointly explore the structural issues behind improving levels creativity and innovation in Food SMEs, inventory existing resources and commit to collaborative actions to address these issues in a DECREE Action Plan. We will systematize the process and lessons learned in the form of a DECREE Toolkit, which will be published and actively promoted as a means of replicating the Partnerships in other regions. DECREE is delivered by a cross-sectoral partnership led by CIDO, the lead enterprise development body in the Craigavon region, a region known for its food companies & which produces over 40% of all food produced in Northern Ireland (agri-food production is NI’s most important industry). They will be joined by The Food Hub (Ie) & Satafood (Finland) both Cooperative Agencys specialising in Food VET training and regional economic development programmes. The partnership is completed by VMK Hungary an Agricultural College specialising in Food production, Momentum (Ie) a FETAC accredited training centre deeply involved in course curriculum & content development, Euro Foundations a Bulgarian not-for-profit organization with specific expertise in innovation, development of SMEs, stimulating innovation in food industry, & Canice Consulting (UK), an international consultancy in the field of business VET & a recognised expert in digital learning.
CONTEXT/BACKGROUND Developing Education Tools for Healthy & Creative Food Regions (which was sunsequently rebranded as nourish eu) is motivated by two closely-related challenges. Firstly, chronic EU obesity figures (OECD) show that more than half (52%) of the adult population in the EU is overweight or obese. Secondly, food poverty is on the rise in Europe. 2013 statistics show that 116 million Europeans are now at risk of poverty or social exclusion and 40 million are suffering from severe material deprivation. It is acknowledged that the cheapest food is the unhealthiest food. These 2 clear challenges represent enterprise opportunities for Food SMEs across the EU to innovate to develop healthier, affordable food and new food distribution channels. However, these SMEs have been slow to respond as they report they do not have the professional capacity or skills base to innovate/orchestrate change in the entrepreneurship, development, production & marketing of “healthier food”. OBJECTIVES The 3 main objectives and outputs of the project are summarized as: 1. A toolkit to assist & train regional stakeholders to create a Healthy Food Regional Partnership. This toolkit is called the "Healthy Food Partnership Toolkit" and comprises a programme of learning actions and guidance on how to create a healthy food region. 2. A set of open educational resources which are delivered via an online course for Food SME Owners & Employees. This course is called “Creative ways to produce, market and distribute healthy food” and focuses on teaching owners and employees how to implement greater innovation and creativity in their businesses. 3. An innovative industry based employability training programme with a cohort of young unemployed. This industry based learning enabled learners to acquire new skills for new employment/self employment in the food sector.The main aim of the project was to provide innovative, easily accessible and career-oriented continuing VET (C-VET) for employees, employers and independent Food entrepreneurs. NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS CIDO - While a first time applicant under Erasmus+, extensive project management experience enabled them to successfully guide the project the completion. Being the center of a vast network of businesses, enabled CIDO to easily establish their Strategic Partnership in the ABC area and guide partners in the establishment of their Partnerships and their successive Action Plans. Canice Consulting - An experienced EU programme partner, CC brought a wide range of competences to the project including course curriculum development, digital and classroom pedagogic solutions and an extensive dissemination database of European VET and education providers which resulted in the discussions and contact with Friesland and their interest in establishing a nourish eu partnership. The Food Hub/Drumshanbo Community Council - Operating a multi-tenant food production and enterprise centre provides The Food Hub with a unique insight into the development and training needs of new and existing food businesses, as well as young unemployed people who receive food sector food training on site. This insight and experience, as well as their impressive connections in food and enterprise sector enabled them to successfully carry out their work in IO2 and IO5, and provide valuable input into the other intellectual outputs, especially IO1 and IO3. Momentum Marketing Services - An enterprise focused training organisation, MMS has specific competence in the food sector having delivered a wide range of food specific training programmes over the last 15 years. This experience was directly applied to their work in IO3 and IO4. Recognised for their high impact marketing campaigns, MMS also led the Dissemination Strategy for the project and assisted The Food Hub with the design and delivery of E2, the National Launch of the "Healthy Food Partnership Toolkit" in Ireland. Euro Perspectives Foundation - EPF are a training centre for education, information and learning exchange. They have specific competence in local and regional food sector development as a result of a previous INTERREG project, the experience of which guided their work on IO1, the creation of the "Healthy Food Partnership Toolkit". EPF also applied their evaluation experience to the task of designing and implementing the Internal Monitoring Strategy for the project. FM KASZK - With a commitment to healthy food innovations, FM KASZK have extensive expertise in the areas of training, research and pedagogic evaluations and as a result were charged with leading IO6, the pilot testing. Given their stronghold, as the largest agricultural school in their region, FM KASZK also brought an impressive network of connections to the project which enabled them to easily establish the Hungarian Strategic Partnership. RESULTS The "Nourish EU Healthy Food Partnership Toolkit" IO1 is a learning tool and startegic/practi