The European green agricultural sector (food, agri, animal husbandry, nature, living environment and leisure) is from an economic, social and sustainable point of view important for a prosperous, sustainable and green future worldwide. The European Green Deal and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) emphasize this position and the challenges the green sector needs to face. The partners of this project are inspired by these goals and believe that green agriculture educational institutes on secondary, tertiair and higher level should take an important role in educating enough qualified students who are well prepared with the appropriate green sustainable and circular skills to achieve these goals. However the problem all partners face is that the number of students entering their green agricultural schools is dropping steadily, while the number of students is already far from enough to fulfil the jobs within the green job market. The main causes for this gap between the jobs related to the green job market and upcoming green circular society and the students’ needs are: 1) the lack of flexibility of schools to modernize their programs quickly enough; 2) the location of the schools in rural areas, while the students are mainly living in the cities; 3) the attractiveness of the green schools to new target groups that are not traditionally their main target group; 4) the lack of cooperation with regional business and social service organisations also related to other sectors (cross-overs); 5) the increasing but unknown career perspective related to green knowledge and skills; 6) the large number of students who are not capable of making a thought-out choice of education. The overall European wide analysis is that the necessary increase of the number of students with innovative, green, circular skills and knowledge might be achieved by expanding additional efforts to acquire and retain new target groups, especially the multicultural urbanised youth and lifelong learners. We also believe that the attractiveness of green VET-schools to these new target groups can increase by positioning green schools and programs in a positive and innovative way and within the context of our new sustainable and green society of tomorrow. This can be achieved by acting from the perspective of the Whole School Approach of Sustainable Development. An approach in which one works on the renewal of the curriculum, didactics, business operations, professionalization and cooperation with the surroundings of the school from an integral and interdisciplinary viewpoint. In PROGRESS we will create a living community of green VET-schools in Europe in which we exchange good practises and co-operate to find solutions to renew and promote our schools, programs and courses aiming to attract new types of students like urbanised youth and lifelong learners and make them aware of the great opportunities green knowledge and skills and the green sector in general can provide them. The good practises with all kinds of innovative methods and practical tools and recommendations will be shared and disseminated on a local, regional, national and EU-level through a multimedia and inspiring website, EUROPEA and multiplier events.
This project aimed to contribute to the development of a sustainable green society and job market by focusing on the following outcomes: 1) Delivering sufficient qualified green skilled workforce affiliated with developments towards a sustainable green society and the green job market (food, agri, animal husbandry, nature, living environment and leisure). 2) Increasing the employability of urban youth by educating green, sustainable and circular skills related to the green sector. The project partners realised that they all face the same kind of challenges. By combining forces transnationally through the development and exchange of good practises, debating possible solutions and formulating practical recommendations on every aspect of the whole school approach, every project partner and the green agricultural schools European wide, can be inspired and facilitated. Outputs: 1) Good practices to attract new target groups to green agricultural VET-schools. 2) Outline of current and future actions per partner/country 3) A collection of good practises and recommendations to inspire European countries and the project partner countries. 4) Dissemination of the good practises and recommendations.
We, all partners, applied for this project because of our concern about the declining student numbers in green education on the one hand and the need for qualified employees with the right skills for a sustainable, green and circular future on the other. There is already a shortage of green employees, while more will be needed in the future. A European wide analysis is that the necessary increase of the number of students with innovative, green, circular skills and knowledge might be achieved by expanding additional efforts to acquire and retain new target groups like multicultural urbanised youth and lifelong learners. We also believed that the attractiveness of green VET-schools to these new target groups can increase by positioning green education in a positive and innovative way. We have opted for the Whole School Approach of Sustainable Development in which one works on the renewal of the curriculum, didactics, business operations, professionalization and cooperation with the surroundings of the school from an integral and interdisciplinary viewpoint.