This project aimed to involve VET trainees and trainers in STEM training using innovative Digital Agriculture technologies. Learners participated in interdisciplinary activities that encourage young people to be creative with technology and acquire digital skills in demand. Modern Digital Agriculture is chosen as a practice that incorporates STEM disciplines that can enhance the attractiveness of the VET Institute and can lead to the job market. The didactic practices being followed reflected this progress and utilized real-world problem paradigms to solve and prepare them for their future professional role. Such challenges and job opportunities intrinsically exist in agriculture, which is a critical sector for feeding the growing population on Earth, against natural source depletion and pandemics. In this context, this project aimed to explain how STEM – based techniques can be customized to form a characteristic bouquet of activities to better prepare students for their careers in a rapidly changing environment, resulting in an innovative skillset that makes agricultural practices more efficient and environmentally friendly. The experience being gained, can be useful far beyond the area of agriculture.
All partners had identified the significance of challenges that humanity faces, with the depletion of natural resources and the need for feeding the continuously growing population to be amongst the more imperative ones. Agriculture is one of the main sectors of primary industry that can provide solutions to these problems by embracing modern technologies. Each partner wanted to get involved with the specific project for several reasons. -AUA had the opportunity to reassess and enrich the educational practices used in its curriculum via the process of selecting and adapting the best flavours of them in order to create material suitable for the VET curricula of relevant specialisations. - DIEK Aigaleo had the opportunity to train their trainees in innovative digital agriculture technologies. Approximately 40 trainees and at 7 VET trainers had the opportunity to learn each of them from their own area/ specialisation the use of these technologies and their applications. - GFW had the chance to promote Digital Agriculture different Food & Beverages producers of their network, showing them what the future will look like and prepare them for adapting these technologies to mitigate agricultural production related risks.