QualityForest - Proposal for a new professional qualification that includes all the competences of the European Chainsaw Certificate.

The project has addressed the challenge to elaborate a new professional qualification that includes all the competences of the European Chainsaw Certificate developed by the European Forestry and Environmental Skills Council (EFESC). Some EFESC members (Belgium, France and Spain) and new partners (Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia) has collaborated to elaborate the proposal with the support of other entities and training centres as associated partners. The aims of the project are fulfilling the demands of the industry and to: Reduce accidents & fatalities Reduce associated economic & personal costs related to accidents Improve & enhance operator skills and efficiency in the workplace Enhance operator mobility and employability throughout Europe Improve & expand delivery of existing vocational training and assessment standards Encourage & promote life-long learning and continuous professional development Improve transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications in Europe. Training centres, teachers, trainers, universities, industry among others interested in improving/updating professional qualifications have been invited to participate in meetings and project meetings as “key actors” and at the multiplier and dissemination events. So, more than 300 participants have validated the two intellectual outputs. Regarding the undertaken activities: -CTFC with the support of all the partnership has dealt with the coordination, planning, financing, and encouraged partnership to ensure the good development and implementation of the project. -13 virtual meetings + 4 TM have taken place to ensure the good development of the project, to discuss, to exchange information, to learn from each other, to collaborate and to go together in a higher step. - The dissemination records summarize all the information, promotion and dissemination activities developed during the QualityForest project. E.g.: The leaflet, project and partner’s websites, press releases, meetings, conferences (national and international), social networks and others. - All project activities have been monitored and evaluated by partnership and participants. All partners have written a country report to detail what are the next steps to implement the outputs developed in each country. -Two outputs have been created within the project: a flexible occupational standard named Forestry operations – Forestry maintenance and conservation activity/work in natural spaces (O1) and its Learning and assessment guide (O2). The two outputs have been created thorough 3 steps: 1. Preparation of the design & elaboration 2. Adjustments & validation 3. Translations and validation of translations. The 12 multiplier events organised within the project, apart of other dissemination events described at the dissemination records, have been useful to present, share and discuss the intellectual outputs of the project with a wider audience and to get the support to implement them in the different EU countries. The results attained within the framework of the project: two intellectual outputs, a site at Eduforest website with the information and results of the project, about 15 press notes and articles on newspapers, magazines and blogs, and 12 conferences -one conference per multiplier event- to share knowledge and experience with participants. Impact attained until November 2019: -Better visibility and promotion of the activities of all partner organisations. - All partnership will continue working together to obtain the desired impact of QualityForest project in the next coming years and to start new projects together. - Trainers/teachers/assessors, who have participated at multipliers events, have acquired new methodologies and have started to use the Learning and assessment guide. - The national meetings, multiplier events, the dissemination events have helped to raise awareness among decision makers and general public of the importance of sustainable forest management and the added value of professional qualifications. One example is that the collective negotiation of the agreement among ACETREF (Asociación Catalana de empresas de Trabajos Forestales), UGT and CCOO unions signed in October 2019, promotes and accepts the European Chainsaw Standards by EFESC included in O1 and O2 (Competence unit 1) of QualityForest Project. http://icqp.gencat.cat/ca/detalls/Noticia/Centre_Tecnologic_Forestal_de_Catalunya ACETREEF participated at the Multiplier event that took place in Barcelona. - O1 and O2 have been accepted by EFESC. - Specifically, on CTFC: 2 training centres have been accredited as assessment centres. Regarding longer-term benefits: If this occupational standard and the Learning and assessment guide are accepted by national authorities & CEDEFOP, and the methodology of O2 implemented in training-assessment centres by their trainers and assessors, it will represent an improvement for the professionalization of forestry sector in Europe.