Rationale:There is a huge gap between supply and demand of skills in the labour market in Europe. It is expected that is gap will continue to grow over the next years, especially in the green sector. Many current jobs disappear and new jobs that do not yet exist will emerge. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is about to create a shift in the skill sets required of workers in green jobs. This holds true in particular for the 68 million people in the European Union with skills on lower and middle EQF levels.Objectives:The project aims to contribute to reducing the skills gap in the labour market and help increasing the employability of people on EQF levels 2-4 by aligning learning outcomes with the EU Skills Agenda. Participating organisations:Five vocational education and training (VET) institutions from four different EU countries have teamed up with five partners representing the world of work (companies, branch organization, cooperative, etc).Main activities and project results:The project partners have 1) Actively participated in a customized training based on the updated ECVET Experience as developed by ECVET.nl, and co-developed a shared and unambiguous framework for units of learning outcomes that are based on ECVET principles and align with the EU Skills Agenda by embedding generic skills, professional skills and social-emotional skills; 2) Produced over 50 units of learning outcomes on EQF levels 2, 3 and 4 in English for multiple job profiles, and added translations in 5 additional languages; 3) Selected and established an applicable and shared assessment methodology that supports the recognition and validation of the learning outcomes; 4) Created a training programme for the assessors of the learning units including a short animation video on the assessment for all stakeholders (students, company tutors, teachers);5) Trained the assessors;6) Tested the units and assessment in a pilot with nearly 90 students (twice as much as estimated in the application);7) Collected and summarized recommendations for adjustments and optimization for future use8) Organized and implemented multiplier events in every partner country, as well as one joint multiplier event, joining a conference of umbrella organisation Europea International. All together we've reached more than 250 non-partners. Outcomes and impact attained:* The project partners now have a shared language and a better understanding of EU instruments such as EQF and ECVET. Some of the participants had little to no acquaintance with these instruments prior to the start of this project. Their knowledge and understanding of the value of these tools has increased. * The partners have also built a strong common understanding of what working with the EU Skills Agenda means and how to cooperate in developing those skills. * The project partners have built a closer relationship. Attitudes have changed in a positive way, making it possible to contribute to bridging the gap between the labour market and VET. * We can now recognize and validate formal and non-formal learning, also abroad. This has led to an increased number of students who engage in international mobility programs.* The quality of student mobilities has also improved: it is now clearer to all stakeholders, including the learner, the tutor at the company and the assessor, what the desired learning outcomes are. Feedback from students and work placement companies indicates that the students’ commitment to the learning process and self-assurance during the internship has increased.* The considerable dynamism on the job market calls for a greater degree of flexibility on the part of VET. Learning outcome-based courses lead to a more flexible VET because how and where the learning takes place is no longer restrictive, nor are the teaching method or materials. This makes it easier to provide VET courses in accordance with the needs of the labour market.* The co-developed learning units have given the industry partners a better understanding of the skills acquired by graduated VET students who enter the labour market. This aligns with one of the main topics of the EU Skills Agenda: making skills more transparent.* The inclusion of generic and social-emotional skills in the learning units aligns with another main topic of the EU Skills Agenda: understanding the skills needs of tomorrow.* The partners from the world of work intend to use the project results to improve the employability of their employees. Some of them are using the learning units for their in-company training of workers.* The VET providers are also using the project results to fostering excellence. Excelling students who seek additional challenges can now acquire extra learning outcomes, or learning outcomes at a higher level.

The project was started in 2003 as a collaborative project between a number of vocational education centers with common interest in agriculture. The objective of the project is to target the pedagogical effort in educational planning, which supports the student’s international competency building and preparing them to enter the European working market. Therefore, we have defined the strategic and primary goals we are striving to achieve. Overall, our work is focusing on increasing the student mobility through the entire education from the basic to the upper level.The target group is students with personal and social competencies corresponding to a level, where we judge that they can complete four week mobility in a foreign company. We maintain an annual flow of c. 125 students on the basic level of the education as zookeeper, farmer and forest technicians. They students speak English so well that they can receive instructions and do well abroad. Moreover, they are collaborative and have positive attitudes as well in the classroom as in the practical workshops.The target group is students with personal and social competencies corresponding to a level, where we judge that they can complete four week mobility in a foreign company. We maintain an annual flow of c. 125 students on the basic level of the education as zookeeper, farmer and forest technicians. They students speak English so well that they can receive instructions and do well abroad. Moreover, they are collaborative and have positive attitudes as well in the classroom as in the practical workshops.We schedule activities before, during and after the mobility’s, which supports the learning of the students. The students get practical assignments in the workshops of the schools, where they learn to plan, collaborate and carry out business related tasks, which they encounter in larger scale during the training abroad. We organize language and cultural preparations in order to promote their skills in professional business communications. The students train their skills during the four week mobilities in foreign companies and they finalize by training oral and written communication after returning to the school.We use a diverse range of pedagogical tools during the learning process. Besides deductive teaching of technical issues, we apply very much inductive methods, where the students are challenged to find solutions on practical problems. We use the formal principle, where business-like tasks are solved in the classroom and the functional principle in workshops simulating reality. The mobility project is characterized by being holistically oriented, where many disciplines are integrated in learning. Moreover, we use a project oriented approach, because it mimics the business world outside the school.The expected results is that we can establish about 125 placements annually, which promote learning among the students and is mutually satisfactory among the sending and receiving partners. We assume that we can maintain the confidence-building relations with the partners abroad and extend the network corresponding to the need at the working market. For example we have already taken contacts to international aquaculture companies and established collaboration with the Danish Aquaculture Association, because the Danish government has launched a 2020 plan, where aquaculture will become a growing sector and thus need our students. We expect that this project will have a positive impact in that more students are using the employer’s reimbursement system, during placements abroad globally, so we maintain a dynamics, where experienced students are mentoring the younger.We will maintain the high impact by our presence in professional and social network within the agriculture sector. As an example we are obliging towards enquiries from politicians, researchers and colleagues seeking knowledge of our projects administration and working process. We will motivate students to share their experiences and disseminate information about their stays on blogs, homepages and the social media. We will continue publishing posters, articles and e-books for the public. Moreover we will present news to journalists on magazines and newspapers.The long-term effect is a concerted action targeted at young students, who needs international experiences on the competitive European and global working market. We have a well-documented track record creating opportunities enabling young people to finalize their vocational education. We expect to strengthen the network and extend our strong position on the market.

ANNIE (Aquaponics, New Novelty In Education) is essentially the combination of Aquaculture and Hydroponics. Both aquaculture and hydroponics have some negative aspects. Re-circulating aquaculture needs to have excess nutrients removed from the system, normally this means that a percentage of the water is removed, generally daily. Hydroponics requires expensive nutrients to feed the plants, and also requires periodic flushing of the systems which can lead to waste disposal issues. This nutrient rich water in both systems needs to be disposed of and replaced with clean fresh water. When both systems are combined, these negative aspects are turned into positives, as the nutrient rich water from the aquaculture system is recirculated into the hydroponics system to grow produce. This water is then filtered (clean) into the aquaculture system.Many different species of fish can be grown in an aquaponics system, and the species selection will depend on a number of factors, including climate; freshwater or saline loving fish and plants; the density of fish per cubic metre and fish stratification preferences (the preferred water depth of different species). Aquaponics systems can be used in ‘local for local’ food production situations, is biological and organic and aquaponics need no extra toxic additions like antibiotics, manure or artificial fertilizers, and don't need weeding.Aquaponics has a significant reduction of water usage, compared with traditional growing methods. Plants grow faster and the whole year round; healthier food is produced because of a reduction in chemical applications; water usage is reduced and is cleaner (with only 10% of recycled water lost by vaporization, reducing the water footprint); reduction of transport, reducing the CO2 footprint. Aquaponics will be one of the solutions to the food shortages the world is facing.‘To satisfy a peak global population of 9.7 billion people in 2050, agricultural economists project that total agricultural demand will increase by 60 percent to 100 percent compared with 2005 levels’(Zeigler, M.M (2017) http://www.globalharvestinitiative.org/2017/03/sustainably-doubling-agricultural-productivity-the-right-global-goal-for-2050/)Objectives: This project is a starting point to change regional food production strategies all over Europe. As well as the potential applications for urban areas, this project is also applicable for rural areas. Education played an important role in this project, because this teaches the workers of the future and makes them aware of emerging food problems.The main goal of this project is to expand a network between educational institutions, food producers and local governments. Schools can integrate this topic into current curricula and on any EQF level. ANNIE increased this network where education providers, farmers (business) and governments worked together to raise awareness of water scarcity, water purity and food productivity issues.Number and profile of participating organisations: 13 organisations, Agri Vet- schools EQF level 1-4; Vet schools A.D.; Applied Science Universities, Secondary Schools with LLL-aspects; Business & Development Consultants and Entrepreneurs.Description of undertaken main activities: National: founding of aquaponics platforms in which knowledge and skills are shared, founding aquaponics training centres to provide information and share knowledge and skills; raising awareness by organising workshops for pupils, students and staff within the institutions and outside with partner schools; training activities in the project by the experienced company LandingAquaculture, an international company in aquaculture. There were 4 Steering group meetings and 3 partner meetings and an ANNIElympics, the final meeting was an event in which all participants participated in frivolous items related to fish and plants, healthy and safe food and innovations.The final result included the creation of a database of shared documents to be used to assist start-up aquaponics projects; leaflets in all languages with basic information about aquaponics; 4 training centres (ES,NL, RO and PT) to provide workshops and short training events on aquaponics; 2 working models for educational events; exposures on school days and at national and international meetings like European Parliament, European Committee of the regions (CIFEA MdS) and meetings about sustainability; World Food Day 15th of October 2017 NL; 2 instruction films available for everybody (on YouTube); 4 master classes organised by students.5 Students will graduate on aquaponics through ANNIE. Thousands of people know about aquaponics because of the ANNIE project. Longer-term benefits: new partnerships, a continuation of the partnerships in a new project with the partners, the pioneers become experts in aquaponics in education, pioneers became trainers.

This is a higher education student and staff mobility project, please consult the website of the organisation to obtain additional details.

The 2016 STELAA3 VET mobility project was written to be run over 2 years. It was eventually implemented over one year because of the reduced the number of grants awarded in reference to the past project budget performance.The 15 partner schools in the consortium had to adapt to such conditions and they made the decision to write a STELAA 4 project application the next year which was successfully assessed. Their aim was to avoid any interruption of tthe pupils’ mobility plans and to support the shared commitment within the partnership sending schools.They jointly decided to finance some extra mobilities with management costs in order to underline the commitment of the consortium members to the european dimension of vocational education in their field of activity. 81 pupils were able to have a work placement experience in Europe with the supervision and support of 16 staff members. Their mobility of 2 to 5 weeks according to the option chosen by the sending vocational schools was a first step to discoveranother EU country. The STELAA 3 project has enabled the participants to go and work in about 15 different destinations and experience working and living in a european context. When they came back,their teachers could notice a higher motivation during langage classes once they had realized how useful it was to to be able to communicate in working or everyday life situations.New destinations have been explored and new host companies were added to the consortium foreign partner list.The co-operation between partner sending schools to the benefit of pupils living in sometimes very remote rural areas or who had never thought possible to travel abroad and enlarge their vocational social and transversal skills is one key result of the project. Thanks to the consortium running of their mobility projects the partner schools were able to focus on the practical organisation and pedagogical aspects of the placements with shared tools and mobility preparation sessions.For some of them, the number of pupils going abroad have increased significantly, as well as the european competences of the staff members involved in the EU mobility.The consortium activities are going on in order to encourage the learners to consider new study opportunities and the development of european citizenship in reference to the Paris declaration about the common values of freedom,tolerance and non-discrimination signed in march 2015.