The Project

The main objective of this 2-year project is to encourage the development of innovative digital education practices to assist VET (Vocational Education and Training) trainers, trainees and farmers to get acquainted with the new cutting-edge technologies and become more successful and effective in their future professional careers.

The activities for achieving the above goals included:

- Adapting via pilot examples the necessary conventional and mainly cutting-edge agricultural technologies paradigm from the Agricultural University curriculum to the VET curriculum.

- Training VET trainers in the context of focusing on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) actions and artifacts that are directly related with environmental and agricultural processes.

- Training VET trainees in the context of focusing on STEM actions and artifacts that are directly related with environmental and agricultural processes.

- Verifying the skills acquired by all the trainees by encouraging their engagement in pilot actions including visiting groups of farmers for assisting them via innovative practices and organizing/participating in conferences and exhibitions.

Target Groups

From Greece: Several Trainees and selected Trainers of the specialisations of “Food & Beverages specialists”, “Automation Technicians” and “Computer Technicians”. Those persons are with SAEK AIGALEO, a VET provider in Greece, and both groups will be trained by members of the research and teaching staff and selected studetns of the Dept. of Natural Resources Management & Agricultural Engineering of the Agricultural University of Athens.

From Cyprus: The partner Global Food World Holding LTD (GFW), a distribution company in close relation with a big network of SME producers of fine food & beverages, will act as facilitator in order selected farmers/producers from Cyprus to become familiar with pilot innovative solutions efficiently explained and installed in-situ by the aforementioned trainees. By this way, the “fresh” modern agricultural expertee of the trainees will be better circulated in the society and the market.

Motivation

All partners find very beneficial the idea of participating in such an innovative project, which aims to integrate digital technologies into business processes, in order to improve them. Each partner has its reasons to get involved with the specific project.
AUA will have the oportunity 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.
SAEK Aigaleo will have the opportunity to train their trainees in innovative digital agriculture technologies.

Approximately a number of 40 trainees and at least 6 VET trainers will have the opportunity to learn each from his own area/ specialisation the use of these technologies and their applications in (Food & Beverages specialists, Automation Technicians, Computer Technicians).
Global Food World will have Digital Agriculture applications to be developed for the three different Food & Beverages producers of their network, giving them value added services and making examples of good practice of Digital Agriculture in the Food & Beverages sector.

Technological providers in Digital Agriculture technologies focus on developing richer physical and virtual environments applications, new user interfaces and characteristic IoT applications. With the use of the Digital Agriculture technology for the Food & Beverages sector in an educational Erasmus+ project, the priority of the digital transformation of human activity is better served. The engagement of the trainees and their trainers in these innovative technologies, only benefits can bring to their future career development and upskilling.

The methods of modernising agriculture also signify increased sustainability attitude, as the new technologies are better aiming to manage and exploit the natural resources.