Gardeniser pro is a 30 months strategic partnership project for the development of innovation. It involves 5 organizations from 5 European countries: REPLAY NETWORK (ITALY) as Applicant and coordinator, Pistes-Solidaires (France), Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens (United Kingdom), PETRARCA- EUROP. AKADEMIE FUR LANDSCHAFTSKULTUR - DEUTSCHAND i.v. (GERMANY , ECTE - European Center in Training for Employment (GREECE). Gardeniser pro aims to create and test an innovative European training program to support the professional development of a new figure, the one of Community Urban Gardens coordinator (garden-organizer = GARDENISER), that could strengthen soft and technical skills and experiment their validation through the ECVET system, in order to prepare the ground for the recognition of this innovative profile within the Education and Training Systems at regional and national level, increasing employability. In line with the priority initiative of the Europe 2020 "strategy agenda for new skills and new jobs", the profession of Gardeniser can be counted among the so-called "green jobs", finding in fact its natural collocation within this new and strategic industry, high employment potential, which is called ‘green economy’. The main direct beneficiaries of Gardeniser pro will be young people and adults involved in Community Urban Gardens, in both the public and private sectors, and who want to enrich or integrate the skills needed to play the role of Community Urban Gardens coordinator. Through the international cooperation between partners with different backgrounds and expertise in education, urban gardens and vocational training , Gardeniser pro wants to build an European format in VET field, transferable thanks to ECVET credit system, as well as to create a Gardeniser Licence achievable through the participation to this pathway. An online platform will be developed to put in connection the profiles of Gardeniser who obtain this Licence with the network of national and international Community Urban Gardens, as a tool facilitating the matching labour supply with demand. The quality and the homogeneity of the training format and the related validation system will be ensured by in international training for trainers through which 2 trainers for each organization (for a total of 10) will be trained and prepared to deliver the course for Gardeniser previously studied and developed. Once the European pool of trainers will be constituted, the Gardeniser pro path will involve 20 aspiring Gardeniser of each participating country (for a total of 100 Gardeniser) and 5000 indirect beneficiaries. The experimentation will also aim to build the conditions for sustainability of the action even after the end of the project, thanks to the involvement of local authorities in charge of VET curricula and the synergies that will be built in the specific professional field between public and private, including training and job centres. An integral part of the Gardeniser pro training pathway will be the work based experience in Community Urban Gardens at local level (for 60 Gardeniser – 12 each country) and at international level (for 40 Gardeniser – 8 each country) in order to improve, through practice, specific and transversal skills and provide opportunities of internationalization of the same , for those going abroad.
Gardeniser pro was a strategic partnership project for the development of innovation for a total duration of 35 months, involving 5 organisations from 5 European countries: REPLAY NETWORK (IT) as applicant and coordinator, Pistes Solidaires (FR), Social Farms & Gardens (UK), PETRARCA - Europeishe Akademie fur Landschaftskultur-Deutschland e.v. (DE), ECTE - European Center in Training for Employment (GR). The objective of Gardeniser pro was to create and test an innovative and European training path to support the professional development of a new figure, the one of Community Urban Gardens coordinator (garden-organizer = GARDENISER), that could strengthen soft and technical skills and experiment their validation through the ECVET system, in order to prepare the ground for the recognition of this innovative profile within the Education and Training Systems at regional and national level, increasing employability. In line with the priority initiative of the Europe 2020 "strategy agenda for new skills and new jobs", the profession of Gardeniser can be counted among the so-called "green jobs", finding in fact its natural collocation within this new and strategic working sector, high employment potential, which is called ‘green economy’. The main direct beneficiaries of Gardeniser pro were young people and adults involved in Community Urban Gardens, in both the public and private sectors, and who want to enrich or integrate the skills needed to play the role of Community Urban Gardens coordinator. Gardeniser pro has succeeded, through international cooperation between partners with diversified backgrounds and expertise in the field of education, urban gardens and vocational training, to build a transferable European format in VET field, thanks to the ECVET credit system, and the creation of a Gardeniser Licence that can be achieved through this path. The online platform GARDENISER.EU (IO4) has been created to connect the profiles of gardenisers who have obtained, or will obtain in the future, the licence and the network of national and international urban gardens, as a tool to facilitate the meeting between job supply and demand. It has been enriched by info sections addressed to diversified publics (from institutions to citizens), allowing gardenisers to have online references useful to give support to their personal branding. Additional services have been activated, targeted directly to community gardens (info-pages easy to update and translated automatically, geo-localized maps) and aimed to reinforce their action (toolbox and e-learning on good practices). The quality and homogeneity of the training format (IO2) and the related validation system (IO3) was ensured by an international training for trainers (C1) through which 2 trainers for each organisation have been trained and prepared (IO1) to transfer ad adapt Gardeniser pro course, previously studied and developed. Once the pool of European trainers was established, the Gardeniser pro training pathway at local level involved 24 trainers that delivered the TC to 101 aspirant gardenisers selected among the 214 candidates in all partner countries. An important part of the training path was an internship experience at local level and, for 8 of the participants of each organisation, at international level in the community gardens involved by the partner organisations. In this way participants could improve, through practice, specific and transversal skills and, for those who had the opportunity to go abroad, provided an opportunity for internationalization. The experimentation was also useful to build the conditions for a sustainable action even after the end of the project, thanks to the synergies built, in this specific professional field, between public and private actors. An example of this is the recognition of SF&G as a "national training provider" on the figure of the Gardeniser, initiated by the British Ministry of Education, and the start of the procedures to include the new professional figure in the repertoire in Italy, with the commitment of the Lazio Region to apply to the State-Regions Conference, being able to count on the support of the Region of Tuscany, actively involved in with the project "100.000 community gardens in Tuscany". Gardeniser pro managed to reach more than 30.000 people interested in the theme promoted by the project, to see 53 community urban gardens directly involved in the activities, among the 1.871 who followed it and who in turn disseminated information to 11.310 citizens (gardeners, active members and sympathizers).