FOREST4LIFE 2014
Start date: Nov 1, 2014,
End date: Oct 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
The FOREST4LIFE project is promoted by the Vocational Secondary School ‘Services sector for agriculture, rural development and forestry’, of Ormea (Cuneo), on behalf of the other three partner Schools that form the Italian Schools of Forestry Board, situated in as many Alps and Appennine Mountains areas. These four Secondary Schools train technicians with a professional competence in the forest sector, skilled in monitoring, preserving and managing the forest and agricultural resources of the mountain region.
The School of forestry of Ormea and the other 3 partner Schools are becoming more and more important as a point of reference for the forestry know-how and its related activities and competencies. The school course is meant to provide knowledge and skills with the purpose of training technicians who will enter the world of work bound to their own territory, but with openness to Europe. With this proposal the four Schools have granted the requests coming from the forest sector, various regional and national partners and
the world of work. The data about the hydrogeological instability in Italy are alarming; therefore it is urgent to train experts able to prevent environmental disasters due to the soil fragility. The project offers traineeship to 80 students from the 4 Schools, who will join in it at the end of the fourth school year, before attending the last course and taking their secondary school diploma. The project aim is to give the participants the opportunity to improve their ability and take back new ideas and experiences, acquiring a modern and analytic approach to face the problems related with this sector. To point out topics such as sustainable farming practices, renewable resources, forest certification and forest association means to invest in a basic sector for the safeguard of the country and the development of the Green Economy as a chance of economic growth.The main idea is that only the active management of the wood allows the development of its different functions (related to the environment, the landscape, the biodiversity preservation) and, as a consequence, the production of environmental goods and services to support the active permanence, the generation turnover, the social inclusion, the reduction of poverty and the economic development in rural areas. Moreover, the trainees will improve effectively their language skills and thanks to this experience they will be allowed to get in touch with the culture and civilization of the host countries, encouraging cultural exchanges. The project provides 4 weeks traineeship, starting from May 2015, in companies and boards dealing with the field of forestry and a range of concerns business including processing and services. The traineeships will take place in the UK, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Spain. These countries are carefully protecting their heritage of forests and are sensitive to this topic, giving their contribution in the current debate on the next EU common policy. The CSF for the EU Funds for the period 2014-2020 states as its first objective to promote a knowledge exchange and innovation in farming, forestry and rural areas and a vocational training programme in farming and forest sectors. At the end of the mobility experience, integrated in the school teaching programme, trainees’ outcomes will be assessed both with the Europass Mobility document and with credits and school acknowledgement according to the ECVET procedures.