This proposal aims to enhance the access for all to vocational education and training (VET) and to support raising of improved qualification level of people with learning difficulties (participating as VET learners) in the field of ecological (organic) vegetable gardening which is one of the leading market areas in EU with a 5,6% improvement for 2016 (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Organic_farming_statistics). This is not existing in the national classification of VET professions so far on national and EU level. Our consortium will achieve this by the development of new occupational profile of "Eco-vegetable gardening worker", related curriculum, training modules and (pre-, post- and self-) assessment mechanisms. In addition the proposal will set up and implement guidelines for social entrepreneurship possibilities through which the people with disabilities could be self-employed or to start-up their own business perspectives in the Eco-vegetable gardening area. This is in line with the available governmental funding programmes which will co-finance the establishment of a Eco-gardening social enterprises thus will offer a sustainable employment of the people with disabilities and will make possible their transition from being passive members of society to active citizens on the labour market. Another advantage that this novel VET course will offer is the improvement of the (pre-) qualification of longterm unemployed people (including those with disabilities) who have similar existing educational background in the field of gardening, seeds and crop fields and would like further to extend it. This will also contribute to the extension of the training offer by VET providers on national and EU level (ensured by the language versions of all intellectual outputs: EN, BG, SL and TR). Direct target user will be: - VET trainers in area of (organic) vegetable gardening - VET teachers who want to introduce Eco-vegetable gardening in their curricula - VET Students with learning/cognitive disabilities - VET Schools with garden in their training profiles - SMEs active in ecological gardening Beneficiaries of the project outcomes will be: - Employers, SMEs, Unions - NGOs of people with disabilities - Governmental educational institutions in the field of agriculture (Ministries, National VET agencies, directorates) - Wider community (society) as final received of Eco-vegetable gardening production. The aim and objectives of the proposal are: - Creating a VET training course to train teachers how to train students including those with learning/cognitive disabilities in becoming experts in ecological vegetable gardening, and as such also becoming experts in their own rights and able to pass their knowledge to other peers. - Supporting students with learning/cognitive disabilities in acquiring and developing key and transversal competences (social, civic, interpersonal etc.) to foster employability, as well as elevate entrepreneurial skills among these VET learners towards professional development (social entrepreneurship). - Promoting social inclusion as this profession necessitate inclusion in the society, such as providing good and best practices training to VET students (including those with disabilities), thus embracing inclusion and diversity within the society. - Preparatory steps towards accreditation and update on the existing VET subjects with this novel job profile and its VET course. The project is offering the VET training through a novel MOBILE LEARNING which content is a very powerful base for supporting engagement, participation of VET learners and accessibility (especially for those learners with disabilities who cannot physically attend face to face training sessions due to environmental accessibility problems). During the project we will develop, approbate, disseminate and exploite the following envisaged outcomes: IO1: “Train the trainer” - Curriculum and training handbook on provision of ecological (organic) vegetable gardening training (ECVET based) for VET trainer/teachers IO2: Training course on ecological vegetable gardening (ECVET based) for the students with learning disabilities IO3: Illustrated eco-vegetable gardening handbook IO4: Social entrepreneurship skills guidelines IO5: Ecological (organic) Vegetable Gardening Worker IO6: Accessible mobile learning application for Android devices The consortium includes Bulgarian, Belgian, Slovenian and Turkish partners representing all key actors involved in the topic: 2 agricultural universities, 3 VET centers offering inclusive education, counseling body and 2 small-medium sized enterprises in the eco-vegetable gardening. In addition the proposal is supported by 15 associated partners incl. policy makers, VET accreditation bodies, governmental institutions, VET providers, organisations representing people with disabilities which will ensure its exploitability, sustainability, mainstreaming and multiplication.
The last 10-15 years have seen an increase in interest in organic production in the EU, which is due to the growing demand for organic products worldwide. The dynamic development of organic farming in recent years and the growing number of occupied areas and the number of farmers in the sector determine the need for training in this area. Ecological vegetable gardening mastered by adults with learning/cognitive disabilities is a novel concept. While ecological gardening, in general, is increasingly becoming popular, the actual training towards such gardening is barely existent, and entirely non-existent when we consider as a target group to be trained adults with learning/cognitive disabilities. The ECOGARD project aimed to enhance the access for all to vocational education and training (VET) and to support the raising of the improved qualification level of people with learning difficulties (participating as VET learners) in the field of ecological (organic) vegetable gardening which is one of the leading market areas in EU. This was not existing in the national classification of VET professions so far on the national and EU levels. The partnership achieved this by the development of a new occupational profile of "Eco-vegetable gardening worker", related curriculum, training modules, and (pre-, post-, and self-) assessment mechanisms. The main objectives of the project were: - Creating a VET training course to train teachers how to train students including those with learning/cognitive disabilities in becoming experts in ecological vegetable gardening, and as such also becoming experts in their own rights and able to pass their knowledge to other peers. - Supporting students with learning/cognitive disabilities in acquiring and developing key and transversal competences (social, civic, interpersonal, etc.) to foster employability, as well as elevate entrepreneurial skills among these VET learners towards professional development (social entrepreneurship). - Promoting social inclusion as this profession necessitate inclusion in the society, such as providing good and best practices training to VET students (including those with disabilities), thus embracing inclusion and diversity within the society. - Preparatory steps towards accreditation and update on the existing VET subjects with this novel job profile and its VET course. The project also offered the VET training through a novel MOBILE LEARNING which content is a very powerful base for supporting engagement, the participation of VET learners, and accessibility (especially for those learners with disabilities who cannot physically attend a face to face training sessions due to environmental accessibility problems). The ECOGARD project developed, implemented, and disseminated and exploited the following intellectual outputs: IO1: “Train the trainer” - Curriculum and training handbook on the provision of ecological (organic) vegetable gardening training (ECVET based) for VET trainer/teachers (funded by PMI) IO2: Training course on ecological vegetable gardening (ECVET based) for the students with learning disabilities IO3: Illustrated eco-vegetable gardening handbook IO4: Social entrepreneurship skills guidelines IO5: Ecological (organic) Vegetable Gardening Worker job profile IO6: Accessible mobile learning application for Android devices (funded by PMI) The achieved intellectual results of the project were 6, of which 4 were approved for funding, and IO1 and IO6 were developed in the form of self-participation and additionally funded by funds from PMI. The final versions of the Intellectual outputs are available via: https://ecogardening.eu/elearning/ As direct target users, we involved VET trainers in the area of (organic) vegetable gardening, VET teachers who want to introduce Eco-vegetable gardening in their curricula, VET Students with learning/cognitive disabilities, VET Schools with garden in their training profiles, SMEs active in ecological gardening. Beneficiaries of the project outcomes were also employers, SMEs, NGOs of people with disabilities, Governmental educational institutions in the field of agriculture (Ministries, National VET agencies, directorates), Wider community (society) as final received of Eco-vegetable gardening production. The main impact of this novel VET course attained is the improvement of the (pre-) qualification of long-term unemployed people (including those with disabilities) who have a similar existing educational background in the field of gardening, seeds, and crop fields and would like further to extend it. This also contributed to the extension of the training offered by VET providers on the national and EU levels (ensured by the language versions of all intellectual outputs: EN, BG, SL, and TR). Transferability potential: the material is suitable also to be applied with other disadvantaged groups on the labour market such as refugees, long term unemployed people, low skilled and NEETs.