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Organic Agriculture E-learning (FINESSA)

Organic production is the fastest growing segment of the European agriculture sector and with growing environmental awareness, this trend is set to continue. To meet the market demand and various policy objectives many of the member states have set goals for the pace at which the percentage share of agricultural land under organic production should increase. One major obstacle in the way of such goals is limited availability of vocational education in organic agriculture and horticulture in many member states. When organic education is available the geographical location often is an obstacle, especially for those already working, in conventional agriculture wanting to convert or in organic agriculture, but lacking educational basis. The FINESSA project aims to make vocational education in organic agriculture and horticulture available to all those who will benefit from regardless of their varying professional, geographic, age and other situations. The project's aim is vocational education that is particularly well suited for people already in the workforce, an education that turns workplaces in organic agriculture enterprises into learn-spaces.The project transfers and combines innovations from three other vocational education projects: The Portfolio of Evidence (PoE), an innovation of the PROVOTRAIN project, is a system of assessing workplace learning in a three party co-operation of the learner, the employer and the school. In the ECO-JOB AP project an e-learning platform has been constructed for the training of farm advisers of organic farming, in FINESSA this will be adapted to form the electronic framework for making education available regardless of geographic location of the learner. The training modules of the ENSA project will serve as the foundation of the body of learning materials available to teach the organic agriculture subjects in school, at work and over the internet.The FINESSA partnership from Finland, Spain and the UK consists of education partners and organic farmers' associations. The education partners are all familiar with both formal education and various forms of life long learning efforts, such as apprenticeships. The association partners have an important role in ensuring that the outcomes are befitting the needs of the industry. Two of the disseminating partners are from new member states, Bulgaria and Latvia, one is the Netherlands based International Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture Training (IFSAT).The project will produce in each of the receiving countries a dedicated e-learning program for vocational education in organic agriculture, a supporting system of assessing workplace learning and a body of education modules and teaching materials. During the project teachers will be trained to work with the products and the piloting will reveal points of fine tuning. The long term impact of the project will be more and better organic agriculture and therefore healthier food and a healthier environment for future generations of European citizens.

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