Growing skills on farms for budding learners with disabilities. European VET provision for learners with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) is improving, however this Partnership seeks to accelerate it through the use of rural and urban farms. The European Commission for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion have highlighted in a published report that there is a significant political understanding for improved inclusive education and uptake for learners with SEND. This Partnership seeks to show the potential farms have as an educational setting and to increase the uptake, quality and quantity of VET courses on offer across Europe. The sharing, development and transfer of this knowledge has a clear goal. The goal is to provide strengthened social inclusion through improved competences in VET curricula so that SEND learners can be provided with permeable pathways into employment. This goal can be recognised through the more precise objectives of this Partnership which are to: - Share knowledge of outreach to promote access for disabled learners onto courses in farms as permeable pathways into the labour market, - Develop inclusive and accessible schemes of work for learners with disabilities, - Provide stimulating, inspirational collaboration to motivate and aid VET teachers’ and staffs’ continuous professional development. The proposed Partnership consists of three countries: the UK, Italy and Romania. The high quality international dialogue and exchange of best practice will exist through focused planning, support and collaboration. Within the UK, the Enso Group is an experienced non-governmental group that supports, coordinates and creates connections between European countries and organisations. They seek to enhance the Erasmus +’ aims of sharing best practice internationally in order to provide better educational opportunities and therefore exceptional career pathways for all. Within Italy Avofid, a farm hosting SEND learners and their families, seeks to be part of this innovative Partnership. Avofid will be new to the Erasmus programme and opportunities it offers. Avofid provides support, VET learning and socialisation for those with disabilities. The courses include creative and educational workshops. Additionally there are cultural excursions and free social time for SEND learners. This in turn provides rest-bite for families involved. Simion Mehedinti in a high school in Romania for students with disabilities. It teaches 250 students between 14 and 26 years of age. The courses include mechanics, carpentry, tailoring and construction. These staff seek to improve provision for their learners and across Europe and hope to add-value to the project by influencing perspectives on SEND VET courses and employment. The activities proposed will provide a synergy between VET education and training. Throughout the Partnership there will be collaboration through shared virtual platforms. There will be two initial meetings to refine plans and activities for the 5 day learning event. The initial meetings will take place at Avofid in Italy and Simion Mehedinti in Romania. This will also provide all participants with an opportunity to observe and discuss VET courses in situ. The main 5 day learning and training event will take part in the south-west of England. Here, all activities will be prepared to meet the objectives of the Partnership. This will include the sharing, collaboration and review of outreach material and schemes of work. During these 5 days, other local organisations who have also expressed an interest will be involved such as city farms and employers of SEND learners. The Enso Group and Simion Mehedinti already have experience of the precise methodology needed for carrying out this project. The project work plan will be written and shared with all partners so it is clear what is expected of each partner. Enso will monitor all development (preparations, budgets and logistics), two initial meetings will provide short-term deadlines for much of the preparatory work. This Partnership envisages better quality VET curricula available on farms and material available to increase the uptake upon these courses. The longer term results will aim to have more SEND learners on courses on farms and also to have an increase in paid employment. This impact could not only change the lives of SEND learners and their families but could also change how companies value SEND employees. The way to ensure that this is transnationally available is to disseminate the results of the Partnership on platforms such as EPALE, Start Academy and the European Federation of City Farms' websites and social media pages. We will provide multi-lingual, open licenses to maximise the ability for our goals to operate transnationally ensuring the long-term benefits are sustainable.
Growing skills on farms for budding learners with disabilities. European VET provision for learners with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) is improving, however this Partnership aimed to accelerate it through the use of rural and urban farms. The European Commission for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion have highlighted in a published report that there is a significant political understanding for improved inclusive education and uptake for learners with SEND. This Partnership aimed to show the potential farms have as an educational setting and to increase the uptake, quality and quantity of VET courses on offer across Europe. The sharing, development and transfer of this knowledge has a clear goal. The goal is to provide strengthened social inclusion through improved competences in VET curricula so that SEND learners can be provided with permeable pathways into employment. This objectives of this Partnership were to: - Share knowledge of outreach to promote access for disabled learners onto courses in farms as permeable pathways into the labour market, - Develop inclusive and accessible schemes of work for learners with disabilities, - Provide stimulating, inspirational collaboration to motivate and aid VET teachers’ and staffs’ continuous professional development. The proposed Partnership consisted of three countries: the UK, Italy and Romania. The high quality international dialogue and exchange of best practice took place through focused planning, support and collaboration. Within the UK, the Enso Group is an experienced non-governmental group that supports, coordinates and creates connections between European countries and organisations. They seek to enhance the Erasmus +’ aims of sharing best practice internationally in order to provide better educational opportunities and therefore exceptional career pathways for all. Within Italy Avofid, a farm hosting SEND learners and their families, aimed to be part of this innovative Partnership. Avofid was new to the Erasmus programme and opportunities it offers. Avofid provides support, VET learning and socialisation for those with disabilities. The courses include creative and educational workshops. Additionally there are cultural excursions and free social time for SEND learners. This in turn provides rest-bite for families involved. Simion Mehedinti is a high school in Romania for students with disabilities. Their courses include mechanics, carpentry, tailoring and construction. The staff aims to improve provision for their learners and across Europe and hope to add-value to the project by influencing perspectives on SEND VET courses and employment. The activities proposed provided a synergy between VET education and training. Throughout the Partnership, project partners collaborated through shared virtual platforms. There were two initial meetings to refine plans and activities for the final learning event. The initial meetings took place at Avofid in Italy and Simion Mehedinti in Romania. This provided all participants with an opportunity to observe and discuss VET courses in situ. The main learning and training event was held online due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. Most of activities were prepared remotely before the event to meet the objectives of the Partnership. This included the sharing, collaboration and review of outreach material and schemes of work. During the two-day online event, partners reviewed the prepared materials - Powerpoint and video presentation of a 10-module horticultural course entitled "Growing skills on farms for budding learners with disabilities". The project contributed to greater social inclusion of people with disabilities thanks to the cooperation of three partner organizations and the creation of educational materials for themselves and other teachers, carers or organizations dealing with people with disabilities. The fact that there are more and more materials of this type makes us jointly build awareness of the problems of people with disabilities, their access to education and work, and the problems faced by their relatives or carers. Thanks to this, more people can use these materials, get inspired to improve them or create their own, tailored to the needs of a specific group. Enso Group and Simion Mehedinti already had experience with the precise methodology needed to implement this project. Avofid shared their experiences in more practical aspects of horticultural courses and work with people with disabilities. Thanks to the participation in the project, the team had become motivated and energised with better skills set for inclusive teaching and outreach for SEND VET courses which is what we aimed for in relation to the project's objective. The target group of SEND learners had increased opportunities on farms locally and through across Europe. Partners produced a newsletter of the project that is reaching learners and which will be instrumental in encouraging and influencing to further their knowledge in VET and SEND. This helps with more inclusive learning and include better pedagogy for different learning styles and abilities. This Partnership envisages better quality VET curricula available on farms and material available to increase the uptake upon these courses. The longer term results will aim to have more SEND learners on courses on farms and also to have an increase in paid employment. This impact is not only changing the lives of SEND learners and their families but could also contribute on how companies value SEND employees. The way to ensure that this is transnationally available is to disseminate the results of the Partnership on platforms such as EPALE, Enso Academy, Enso 4 Green, partners websites and partners social media pages.