Forestry is a specialised field which demands specific skills and knowledge. Throughout Europe, forestry professionals have specialties of their own, and innovative techniques arise at local level, specific to the terrain conditions/management system/... Despite the local differences, the expertise can be of high interest for forestry professionals elsewhere in Europe, as they have a critical need for specific knowledge since they are facing substantial challenges (e.g. climate change, increased mechanization,…). Unfortunately, these specific techniques and knowledge often stay trapped within the organisation or country and don’t transfer between countries/regions because of language or mobility barriers. Knowledge would spread much faster and easier over Europe if high-level skills acquired in one region can be made available European wide in such a way that language and mobility barriers are overcome. Our project aims at doing exactly that. In a consortium of 5 highly qualified European training institutes (Natuurinvest (B), Kuratorium fur Waldarbeit und Forsttechnik (G), Centre Tecnologic Forestal de Catalunya (S), Centre Forestier de la région Provence Alpes Cote d'Azur (F), Bundesforschungs und ausbildungszentrum fur wald naturgefahren und landschaft (A)), we intend to reply on the training needs of forestry professionals and trainers by bringing together our specific regional expertise and – under the leadership of KathOndVla, expert in the development of digital training materials - by translating the knowledge into online learning content of different formats and languages. In this way, we want to allow professionals to stay up to date and improve their knowledge via blended learning, a training method that is non-existing in the forestry sector at the moment and quite a challenge as a lot of the expertise is classically taught in hands-on practical training. Via well-considered introduction of digital training materials adapted to the forestry professionals, blended learning will become more commonly used and known, increasing the scope of professionals that can be reached thanks to online exchange of knowledge. The three tangible outputs of the project will be publically available online via the EFESC website (European Forestry and Environmental Skills Council), also after the project has ended. Two online “training lines” will be developed. Each training line is a coherent whole (e-learning course), consisting of stand-alone modules (the building blocks) that can be used separately, for example in other training lines to be developed in the future. Different digital formats will be applied. The first training line will address the effects of ecological aspects on forest management. The second will focus on technical skills and safety measures in forest management. With the two complementary training topics we will reply to training needs of different forestry professionals and cover a broad spectrum of expertise. Time investment for learning will be limited and flexible (whenever and wherever the user wants), focused and targeted on acquiring high-level skills and competences in specific forestry topics. In order to develop these training lines, the partnership foresees two short-term joint staff training events for a very intensive exchange of expertise and hands-on practical application of the development of digital training materials. Attention will be addressed to the translatability of the materials into other languages. The guidelines on the development of blended training material for the forestry sector –the third project output- will consist of different parts. On the one hand, a text format providing necessary context and introduction to what-when-who-… of blended learning, more specifically for the forestry sector. On the other hand, tutorials for the development of content in different digital formats will be generated. As the guidelines will be developed based on the experiences of forestry training institutes discovering this education method, very practical and concrete tips and tricks will be provided for other training institutes with the intention to develop online content. The extended network of EFESC, Eustafor and EDUFOREST, including different types of actors of the forestry sector all over Europe, will complement the networks of the training institutes to be used for the dissemination of the project results and – more important – the general integration of digital materials into classical training schemes for forestry professionals in the future. This will facilitate the exchange of expertise and the accessibility to knowledge within the sector and between professionals, not only on local or regional level but also on European level and beyond. In this way, the forestry sector will be strengthened thanks to knowledge, in facing the challenges related to climate change, increased human pressure on forests, increased mechanization etc.
Although blended learning is an education program that is known and used in several domains, it was not yet used -and so very much innovative- in the forestry sector. During this project 21 forestry expert from ES, FR, Au, De and Be have been trained in developping innovative, interactive online learning materials. They have developted digital learning materials for professionals from the forestry sector. The developed digital training modules were combined into so-called “training lines” specifically developed for forestry professionals, covering subjects and expertise that they need today in order to stay on top of knowledge and expertise in their domain. Thanks to the participation of an agogic training expert in blended learning and specialized forestry training institutes (FTI) from different European countries, transnational exchange of expertise -which was necessary to reply to the specific training needs of forestry professionals- was possible. Before this project the participating FTI's mainly developed and transmitted expertise via classical teaching and handbooks. A part of the trainings included already sometimes basic online support (for example with introductory texts, background documents or by making available the presentations used during the training) via their websites. But with this project of Blended learning the European Forestry sector (EFS) has entered the world of blended and online learning. The developed digital learning materials, which are available in different digital formats were widely disseminated amoung the different networks of the participating Forestry partners within this project, in order to make an extensive implementation of online content into classical training schemes possible. Thanks to the experience of Katholiek Onderwijs Vlaanderen, partners have been able to level up their basic online support into professional development of digital training materials on the one hand and online and blended teaching and learning on the other hand. As a result blended learning and teaching has became more commonly used and known in the EFS. This has increased the scope of forestry professionals that could be reached thanks to (partly) online exchange of knowledge. Throughout Europe, forestry professionals have specialties of their own, and innovative techniques arise at local level, specific to the country/terrain conditions/ … Despite the local differences, specific expertise is of high interest for forestry professionals elsewhere in Europe. The use of digital training materials facilitate now the exchange of expertise and the accessibility to knowledge within the sector and between professionals, not only on local or regional level but also on European level and beyond. Professionals are now aible to consult the digital content whenever they want, without traveling, avoiding important investment of money, time and traveling. Indirectly, the results of the BLEFT-project contributes to the greening of the professionalism of the EFS. In addition, professionals can now easily select the training modules replying to their specific need. So thanks to the use of blended learning, several barriers have been reduced. The partnership has developed digital learning materials in English and in the national language(s) in order to overcome language barriers. For an important part of the forestry professionals guidance was necessary in this foreseen digitalization of the trainings and training materials. The national networks of the partners have been used in order to reach the regular clients and well-known contacts of the sector. The existing relation of trust with the sector has facilitated the introduction of this innovative training method. The extended network including different types of actors from the sector all over Europe has spread the project results beyond the participating partners and countries. During the project, a public project website/page and partner networks and regular communication means were used in order to inform interested parties on the progress of the project. The developed project website, which is also published on the European Platform for Project Results, ensures that the developed training lines – consisting of several separate modules in different digital formats - will be publically and freely available, also after the project has ended. Also the guidelines and tutorials on how to create online content have been recorded and made publically available for any other interested party via this platform and via links on partner websites to this centralized platform.