The eforOwn + project aims to establish a bank of training and information e -resources freely available for trainers in forest technical centers and forest owners who are their audiences, but also for forest teachers and their students at level 4 and 5 in European nomenclature.These resources will be developed using the methodological framework and the technical standard defined in the previous program eforOwn - that is the common basis of shared interests and provides a coherent whole. The necessary adjustments will be added to combinate the each partner's competences and expectations , which will be crossed throughout the project, according to some concerted and interactive modalities of cooperation - involving around 30 trainers and teachers.The program will both update and upgrade the technical and pedagogical approaches and materials used in the two sectors; motivate and improve the skills of the trainers and teachers's team around the use of these new tools (those involved in the project, but also their colleagues); strengthen a common vision and forest culture between the two target audiences (trainers and teachers), which will be beneficial for the adaptation of future graduates of forestry education to the labor market. Many indeed will be working in collaboration with operators of private forests - technical organizations, cooperatives, etc .. - and therefore have an interest in better understanding their expectations, practices and constraints.68 resources (on 84 products and 1 e learning module) will be freely available - out of them 38 in 3 languages on the partner sites (French, Spanish, Catalan, and some in English ) and will be promoted under the joint eforOwn logo, for which a charter for the quality and neutrality of content will be stated. It is expected that those resources can be developed in the future, with the arrival of new national and / or European partners .This project, coordinated by the National Centre for Forest Property in France, brings together six partners from the professional and forestry education sectors in Belgium, France, and Spain, over a period of 36 months.
Background information The forest owners’ profiles and practices are nowadays in full evolution, all over Europe: how to meet their needs, thanks to the new information and communication technologies? This is the key question that structured a first eforOwn project (2012-2014), and revealed that these owners expect simple, attractive and modern self-training tools; in the same time, the trainers and teachers wanted to see their pedagogical approaches evolve and use the same type of tools to support their tasks. It is in this context that the eforOwn+ project was born. Objectives of the project The main objective of eforOwn+ was to provide forest owners in France, Belgium and Spain with free access to educational resources on the Internet. These resources were intended to be and were designed to also serve the needs of forestry students, as well as teachers and trainers who wish to integrate them into their technical and pedagogical practices. Number and profile of participating organizations Seven organisations were involved in eforOwn+, two in Spain, two in Belgium and three in France: in each country one forest development organisation and one educational institution were partners ; in France was also added as partner a public organisation in charge of e learning in the agriculture and forestry sector, that supported the whole partnership, on pedagogical and editorial engineering issues. Description of the main activities implemented The main activity of eforOwn+ has been the production of educational resources: slideshows, fact sheets and videos for three levels - or their equivalent at the European level: A (novice owner, level 4- upper secondary), B (intermediate owner, level 5 - bachelor) and C (expert owner, level 6 university). Of the 85 resources planned, 75 have been produced and are available on line, accessible to all on the the project partners’websites . These resources include 28 slideshows, 39 fact sheets and 8 videos. The list of resources evolved during the project in order to best meet the target audience’ expectations and to avoid redundancies between several resources. Of the 75 resources, 69 are available in French, 23 in Spanish and 10 in Catalan (as of 23.07.2019, Rosa's translations are missing, see with her what she can do by 1 September). Two resources are also available in English to allow for a wider dissemination and to interest future partners in joining the project. Results and impacts achieved At local, regional and national level, the impact for the beneficiary audiences is essentially, for forest owners, a better appropriation of the knowledge and know-how necessary for the implementation of sustainable forest management, and, for students in the forest sector, the improvement of their learning and future professional practices; for the target audiences (trainers and teachers), the improvement of skills in the design and use of distance resources. Long-term benefits The "eforOwn" brand has been registered with the European certification body EUIPO and is awaiting validation (approximate date of registration and publication of the brand: 10/10/2019). A post-program charter has been drafted and signed by all partners in the eforOwn+ project. This charter sets out the post-programme action modalities ensuring the long-term anchoring of the partnership, as well as the common process of production and dissemination of resources: the resources produced during eforOwn+ will be monitored to be regularly updated; new resources may be produced and will benefit from the eforOwn brand, following the decisions of the eforOwn Liaison Committee which will meet once a year. Other partners may join the Liaison Committee and use the brand, in accordance with the terms specified in the post-program charter and following the decisions of the Committee members.