The VALGREEN project aims to improve the training of students and teachers in the field of environmental management, while it fights climate change, promotes green economies and combats desertification in the southern regions of Europe. This is intended to reinforce key skills of pupils of vocational training through the experience of the project itself and the added value that will generate the different partners. The end result of the project will substantially improve vocational training in the field of forest management, which influence the better employability of students and even creating new jobs based on the "Green jobs". The project involves the participation of partners from regions in southern Europe (Spain, Portugal, Italy and Cyprus) where desertification is a real environmental risk and better management of environmental resources is necessary. In this line partners are organizations that work with adolescents, socially very active and committed to their territory in the aspect of employability and environment. So it is a common link of all environmental protection of the territory and mutual learning. The project methodology is based on "learning by doing" so the planned activities, study visits, workshops, etc. whose main component implementation of the acquired knowledge. Besides all the activities have from the beginning with the cooperative participation of all partners, demonstrating the will and commitment to sharing efforts and learn from each other. On the other hand we must also consider their own management activities and communication that is coordinated from Spain and take an active part all project partners, with the objectives of monitor closely the evolution of the project, and to collect the results and communicate properly. In the planned activities it is to reach more than 1200 participants, both locally and internationally. It has also defined a communication plan based on the commitment Internet and social networks, managed collaboratively between teachers and students, with the aim of creating a broad community of interest and that the results serve as many people as possible
The VALGREEN project was born at the beginning of 2016, of the willingness and concern of different professors to continue training future professionals who will deal with the sustainable management of the Environment, especially in areas where global warming (and its manifestations such as desertification) is a problem and a real environmental risk, as is the case in southern Europe. The objectives that have been tried with the present project have been: 1. Contribute to improve vocational training and focus it towards the management of desertification in the arid zones of southern Europe. 2.Propose to the educational centers involved as referents at the regional level in the management and reproduction of native plants and the reforestation of arid zones. 3. Improve teachers 'skills and achieve a higher level of excellence in teachers' professional, linguistic and personal competences. 4. Gradually introduce, in the first cycle of secondary education, the learning methodology for projects based on this environmental problem. 5. To obtain the linguistic competences in English of the professors, through specific actions of the European PORTFOLIO. 6. Become familiar with the use of ICT in the areas of information creation and communication with the rest of the members of the Association. 7. Promote an adaptation of vocational training to the new European currents related to the green economy, the efficiency in the management of natural resources and the adaptation and mitigation of Climate Change. 8. Improve the curricula of professional training by integrating improvements focused on greater employability and self-employment of students. Based on these objectives, the project has tried to improve the skills and key competences of teachers from different educational institutions in southern Europe: - IES Fray Ignacio Barrachina (Ibi- Spain), secondary school and high school with a basic professional training module focused on forest management and focused on students at risk of social exclusion. - Epralima (Alto Lima - Portugal), professional school with experience in teaching related to the professional world and entrepreneurship, and also in education related to environmental management. - Istituto Comprensivo Bartolomeo Lorenzi Fumane (Verona - Italy), is an educational center that is part of an Italian network of educational centers that has extensive experience in international projects and focused on educational innovation. From his point of view, this istituto worked for the introduction of the values of the professional formation and the management of the environment, from the levels of secondary education. The project has been based on an exchange of good practices and experiences among the four entities, through study visits, short-term training and the exchange of information and ideas through social networks or the Internet. In this sense, four study visits and meetings have been carried out. One in each of the territories of the project partners, where two representatives of each entity have participated for at least two days. On the other hand, two short courses have been organized, one in Cyprus and the other in Portugal, which have served to deepen the field of the environment and in the field of professional and entrepreneurial vocation of vocational training. The methodology that has prevailed in the project has been "learning by doing" through it, the activities implemented, study visits, workshops, etc. They have had a remarkable practical component. In addition all the activities of the project have counted from the beginning with the cooperative participation of all the partners, which has demonstrated the will and the commitment to share efforts and learn from each other. On the other hand, we must also consider the activities of management, communication and dissemination that have been coordinated from Spain, but that have also had the active contribution of the rest of the project partners. This collaboration has been key to control the evolution of the project, as well as for the collection of results and disseminate them adequately. In addition, activities and events have been organized at the local / regional level, together with dissemination activities on social networks, web pages, local newspapers, etc. they have served to disseminate the project, having indirectly involved more than 1,000 people from all over Europe. In this sense, the great impact of the platforms and informative tools of some of the partners, such as the Istituto Comprensivo Bartolomeo Lorenzi Fumane and its network "Polo Europeo della Connoscenza" or having institutional support, has been of great help of entities.