SUMMARY

In rural areas, the primary sector of the economy is being reduced, due to the provision of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). An alternative way out for its people retaining their family income is new innovative types of development in a complementary type of employment. We refer to production of novel agro-food products, processing of local traditionally produced agro-food products, valuing and marketing currently non-marketable forest functions goods and services (such as the identification, harvest or possible cultivation of edible fungi in nearby forests to rural areas), cooperatively production, processing and delivery of characteristic local agro-food products, craftsmanship, the development environment oriented tourism activities (eco-tourism, agro-tourism), etc. These multi-occupation activities in rural areas are a highly recommended approach, after the reforms of the new CAP. The rural income will be consisted by total and integrated direct and indirect resources and not only by the primary agricultural production. These activities will be an employment supplement in the primary agricultural production and will constitute occasions for rural income increase as well as growth of rural economy, giving the possibility of creation of alternative occasion of employment and income for the farmers and their families. The overall result will expected to be the growth of all sectors of economy of rural areas and the improvement of quality of life of residents.

The planned Partnership (consisting of Universities, Enterprises and Stakeholders) will establish a framework for designing and planning a well balanced approach towards the creation of tools applicable to VET Institutions and SMEs as well as to people of rural areas. The last ones will be educated, trained, guided and certified in alternative and complementary activities and new employment for retaining and enhancing their family income and their quality of life and keep living in their rural environment.

From another point of view, tourism business and other environmental authorities could use and employ people with advanced expertise, trained and qualified and certified on basic knowledge on nature matters. Therefore a nature knowledge training system leading to a specific certification could be the outcome of the present project for the above mentioned target groups. Most of these people don’t have an easy access to conventional training procedures so the open and distance methodology will be applied.

OBJECTIVES

The objective of the proposed project is the establishment of a framework for designing and planning and creation of the necessary tools applicable to VET Institutions and SMEs as well as to people of disadvantaged rural areas (target group). In this framework the workforce, that is traditionally active in the primary sector will be trained either conventionally or by open and distance methodology) and certified to new innovative types of development in a complementary type of employment such as: (a) the production of novel agro-food products, (b) the processing of local traditionally produced agro-food products, (c) the evaluation and marketing currently non-marketable local functions goods and services, (d) the cooperatively production, processing and delivery of characteristic local agro-food products, (e) local craftsmanship, (f) the development of environment oriented tourism activities (eco-tourism, agro-tourism), etc.

For achieving the above-mentioned objectives, the partnership will develop the following activities:

1. The identification of possible alternative, to the traditionally applied, agricultural activities employment opportunities, of the people of rural areas in concern.
2. The training needs analysis on the identified subjects [(a) to (f) above-mentioned].
3. The construction of a website of the partnership, containing among others a database of Lifelong Learning opportunities on the specific identified training subjects, throughout E.U. These data would be collected from existing VET Centres (e.g. CEDEFOP), Websites and Training Organizations.
4. The creation of the necessary framework and tools (including Guides of Good Practice on the identified training subjects) to be applied to the local people by VET institutions and Organizations.
5. Development of Generally Recognized As Minimum (GRAM) Curricula of VET on all identified subjects [(a) to (f) above-mentioned].
6. Development of a Compendium of potential VET Institutions and trainers, with technological qualifications specialized on the identified subjects and in line with the GRAM Curricula.

DISTRIBUTION

The distribution of the responsibility (leadership) of the tasks between the members of the partnership is the following:

1. Identification of possible alternative, to the traditionally applied, agricultural activities employment opportunities, of the people of rural areas in concern and the training needs analysis on the identified subjects. The coordination of this task will be done by Cyprus Institute for Rural & Regional Development in association with ESAV - Agrarian School of Polytechnic Institute of Viseau (Portugal). All partners will contribute by submitting their data on a national basis.
2. Construction of a website of the partnership, containing among others a database of Lifelong Learning opportunities on the specific identified training subjects, throughout E.U. The coordination of this task will be done by the T.E.I. of Larissa (Greece). All partners will contribute by providing their expertise on this matter.
3. Creation of the necessary framework and tools (including Guides of Good Practice on the identified training subjects) to be applied to the target group. The coordination of this task will be done by the Agricultural University of Plovdiv (Bulgaria), associated by the T.E.I. of Larissa (Greece) and the ESAV - Agrarian School of Polytechnic Institute of Viseau (Portugal).
4. Development of Generally Recognized As Minimum (GRAM) Curricula of VET on all identified subjects [(a) to (f) above-mentioned] with EC-VET credits. The coordination of this task will be done by KTE/T. All other partners (and especially the Academic Institutions) will contribute according to their expertise on the identified needs for training subjects (task 1).
5. Development of a Compendium of potential VET Institutions and trainers will be coordinated by the ESAV - Agrarian School of Polytechnic Institute of Viseau (Portugal) associated by the T.E.I. of Larissa (Greece) and the Agricultural University of Plovdiv (Bulgaria).
6. Synthesis of the outcomes and a proposal for a European Certificate for alternative activities in rural areas, in line with the EUROPASS Authorities and the EQF, will coordinated by the KTE/T in collaboration with the T.E.I. of Larissa (Greece). All partners will participate.

All partners have the required qualifications and competences to work and coordinate the above-mentioned tasks.

The schedule of the mobility activities presented in section 6.1 is an initial one for the workshop motilities planned at the time of the application and agreed between the partners. Therefore, it is difficult to foresee the availability of these experts over the lifetime of the project to be and the co-ordinator declares that this schedule may change. Nevertheless, the final schedule will stay in line with the LLP guidelines.