In agreement with the input emerged during the European Commission High Level Conference Food 2030 our future food system should be more “ sustainable, resilient, responsible, diverse and inclusive”. For doing this we need to reconsider our manner of productions and consumptions. The transition to more sustainable practices is needed to support our growing population and should also serve as an economic development engine to create jobs and depopulation rural areas. As Europe 2020 strategy suggests the EU’s economic strategy, stresses the need for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. To realize this strategy, citizen must have the skills and training needed to work in a more sustainable way to make real the shift towards a green economy. The professionals of food sector are linked to the environment and to encourage them to make their methods more environmentally friendly and healthy. Exploring the greening of the food sector with green thinking techniques towards a specific training plan would go a long way towards ensuring that such knowledge is not lost but rather achieves the significant impact in creating more sustainable solutions and in job creations. The contents of this project is that a new professional training on development of green skills would be needed in order to re-skilling towards more "green thinking " the professionals of the food sector. Sustainable consumption and production has the potential to transform environmental challenges into economic opportunities and provide a better deal for consumers. We have different example that developing a green skills for sustainable food system not only encourages environmentally friendly management but also create sustainable jobs. Bearing in mind the various enterprises involved in the food waste that in the last decades are growing all around the Europe as well as the developing of organic productions . Food is Europe’s largest sector, which has played a vital role for European cultural heritage and social cohesion, but it faces large challenges. These large challenges can turn into a growth opportunity for European countries, especially for the EU job market. The most innovative aspect of the project is to designing a new training programme in order to meet the lack of competences and training needs in the field of sustainability for workers of the agri-food sectors. This path of vocational training offers specialized training content on practices towards the sustainability that can be applied into their work as additional training. The training programme is thought as an integrative course for vocational training related to agri-food sector. The project envisages to work transversely with competencies such as green social entrepreneurship, circular economy, resilience, local food system, and so on. The target group includes those workers or VET-students, who are part of the food chain management, who intend to develop an expertise in implementing and promoting food value chains in their own working sectors, according with their professional specificities. The T4F pilot training is provided in three different countries as Belgium, Italy and Spain. They are previewed 48 participants as pilot group of the training programme. Moreover a selected group of participants attends also a training mobility to training with hand-on approach some specific themes of the training. As a results T4F expects to achieve: 1) Efficiency and quality improvement of the professional figures involved in the food sectors towards sustainable attitudes and green skills . 2) Increased the employability and the competitiveness and qualification of professional figures of the food sector in Europe to building a new sustainable food system. 3)High transferability through useful tools for developing green skill modules for supporting the transition towards innovative and sustainable food chain. 4) Promoting and highlighting the potential of green social entrepreneurship in the field of food system. 5) Powerful dissemination. Promoting transnational cooperation for the production of tools to improve green skills in the food sector.
The European Erasmus+ project « Training for Sustainable Food Systems Development - T4F » aimed at developing professional trainings based on the development of “green skills” in the food sector, in order to increase the number of jobs linked with an ecological, sustainable and inclusive transition. Nowadays, the food issue represents a European and International challenge. The food system has a strong impact on the environment: it is the sector with the highest demand of water. A great part of the production is lost and transformed in waste. While the population is growing, the purchasing power of numerous citizens is reduced by the economic and social crisis, and in a context of climatic emergency implying a successful ecological transition and a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, T4F wants to participate and support the transition as a creator of new jobs. The target group of the project includes those workers or VET-students, who are part of the food chain management, who intend to develop an expertise in implementing and promoting food value chains in their own working sectors, according to their professional specificities. Developing sustainable skills - or green skills - means integrating societal and environmental issues and concerns into vocational training in the food sector. Led by a Belgian (POUR LA SOLIDARITÉ-PLS, Diesis.Coop, For.e.t), Italian (Fondazione Triulza, UCMed) and Spanish (Koan Consulting, ESHOB) partnership, the T4F project made it possible to : -Make an analysis of the current situation of sustainable food training in Europe and define on this basis the T4F training framework. -Define a learning program for learners. -Develop a methodological guide for trainers to help them to implement the learning program. -Create an assessment tool for systematic collection and analysis of information to improve the students' learning. This tool can assess learners' knowledge before and after the training. -Develop interactive manuals for each of the three tools mentioned above in order to sustain and disseminate our training. -Organize a training week in Sorrento where Belgian, Spanish and Italian trainees and trainers were able to exchange ideas on the different ways of learning and cooking, and to discover the T4F training. -Organize 6 events to disseminate the results of the project and to promote T4F training. -Disseminate information in order to contribute to the dissemination of knowledge on the future transformations of the professional food sector, in particular via a website (www.trainingforfood.eu), a Youtube channel (https://bit.ly/2RrBRF4) and social networks. -Co-construct, with the T4F partnership and stakeholders, policy recommendations for public authorities in order to tackle the issue of training for sustainable food! Currently, 6 training centers (excluding the T4F VET partners) have already integrated the training into their programs; 83 training centers outside of the project approached T4F partners for information on training; 181 students received the training in their own countries; and 11 trainees and 3 teachers went to Sorrento to attend a week of training where they have learned about sustainability and the Mediterranean diet. Considering the reception of the Horeca sector, the results of the communication campaign and the feedback from the participants at our various events, the T4F project is definitely a great success!