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Context of the project Multifunctional farmers can play an innovative role to promoting, on one hand, environment protection and, on the other hand, the culture of sustainability. The project aimed to interpret knowledge and skills of the farmers, beyond those typically connected with the basic agricultural production, and, first of all, the methodology innovations which are developing more and more the diffusion of multifunctional opportunity and education to sustainability. The logical basis of this project was to acknowledge both the existing practices and the competences already used (with a bottom-up approach) with the aim to elaborate new possible future professional profiles, to be used within the framework of the daily job of the partner organizations involved in the project. The network planned on achieving the following objectives: - to extend records of current cases in terms of diversification of farm activities/business expansion with the subsequent opportunity to enliven rural areas, prevent depopulation, respond to care needs of the people remaining in the rural areas - to seek established best practices or jointly study, models, types of service to implement the diversification processes of the same - to create sub-partnership both of local and European importance - to define the key-competences required to develop new proposals for a rural sustainable economy - to design appropriate training paths - to promote informative initiatives for citizens in urban areas in order to spread knowledge about the opportunities available in the framework of multifunctional farming. Number and profile of participating organizations DINAMICA SCRL (I) is a vocational training Agency, recognised by the Emilia-Romagna Regional Government which operates in the agricultural field. THE RURAL CENTRE (UK) is a community resource centre which develops social and economic initiatives and deliver educational training programs in disadvantaged rural areas. DEFOIN (E) has been authorized as Employment Agency to manage plans of training proposals aimed at both employed and unemployed people. GENISTA RESEARCH ORGANIZATION (M) is a registered centre of Informal Education with the Malta Qualifications council providing training on sustainable development, organic farming, media, communication, EU affairs and intercultural dialogue. The main undertaken activities were: -the realization of a general overview about agriculture at national or regional level -a report about current situation of the multifunctional trend in each project partner -a survey using the same model of questionnaire for the 4 partners, the questionnaire was addressed to multifunctional and traditional farmers and was delivered individually or through focus group to obtain information about the skills required by new professional roles in order to define competence profiles -a field-testing training session -a definition of common targeted training units -the design of a training pilot project -a pilot-training course -the building of a vademecum containing guidelines for the training of multifunctional farmers’ profile -a collection of training materials The results of the project were: -a shared model for the promotion of lifelong learning between the operators of multifunctional farms oriented to sustainability -a collection of excellent experiences and good practices already established and all acquisitions of method and content that individuals experience in their daily work -European curricula, referred to this type of education, to define, together, aimed training units, combinable and separable from each other, to configure effective and personalized pathways to constitute new competency profiles -a pilot course -a vademecum, containing guidelines for a specific use, by education and training facilities, interested in launching training programs for adults interested in undertaking activities adressed to sustainability. The reached impact can be summarized as the facilitation of the acquisition of additional skills, for farmers, the possibility of expanding their area of work, through service activities, which will integrate the agricultural income, as related activities. Longer-term benefits This initiative will help to build new key competencies, knowledge and skills among farmers, with specific experiences in local actions, such as social, civil, cultural and intercultural ability and entrepreneurship, as well as to strengthen their self-confidence, personal satisfaction and creativity, enabling to take active part in processes of rural community mobilization and development in more effective and efficient way. Combined network of farms will be capable of providing education, social entertainment on sustainability, social services as an integration of the existing public and private offer, both in terms of adult education level and welfare.