2020 is a year that we will talk about in the coming years.
If there is something that we have understood, however, it is the importance of resilience and the ability to be able to develop, even in the worst present and in the most uncertain scenarios, a strong spirit of adaptation with eyes always turned to the future.
For the eTOMATO partners it was a challenging year, characterized by the preparation of training materials that represent the heart of our project.
The last months of the project have been very intense, as the University partners with the strong support of farm partners finalized the outline of the courses and completed the creation of the training materials. The partners worked hard to develop the training contents and helped each other in case of need, showing a mutual goodwill to cooperate for the development of high-quality results. Tinada conducted a detailed analysis of the materials and uploaded all the materials in the Moodle Platform.
The eTOMATO learning path is composed of three steps:
- Face-to-face lessons (in presence or online): dedicated to introduce the topic of Multifunctional Agriculture and to develop entrepreneurial skills;
- E-learning modules: dedicated each one to a different Multifunctional Agriculture domain;
- Business Model competition: adopting some of the tools developed by the partnership (Multifunctional Agriculture Readiness Framework and Multifunctional Agriculture Business Model Canvas) to put into practice the knowledge acquired in the face-to-face lessons and e-learning modules
- Farm-based training on the job: a funded experience (transnational/national level) to work side-by-side with real farmers and help them developing their business towards multifunctional agriculture
Year 2021 will see the implementation of the pilot courses and the candidates attending a Business Model Competition. The winners will obtain access to the transnational/national work-based experience. The course presents approaches for bringing key skills to University students, traditional farmers and new entrants, turning them into MA practitioners. The training course will be implemented by the University partners, addressing students, farmers and new entrants (people already working in the traditional farm sector or in MA domains). Each University is planning to start the course by April 2021, about 140 people will participate in this first pilot test. The program will combine activities in class (Module on “Entrepreneurial skills: Management, strategy and decision-making and general issues of RD-MA”) and e-learning modules (“Short food supply chain”, “Social and didactical agriculture” and “Rural Tourism”).
At the moment, the enrolment process is still open, there are already more than 100 subscriptions. Students applied for the course also from different countries than the ones involved in the project (some students are form China!).
Unfortunately, the partners were unable to meet in person for the two meetings that were supposed to take place in Granada (March 2020) and Plovdiv (June 2020); so they organized virtual meetings to replace them and, although everyone would have preferred to meet and spend a few days together, in the end they were really satisfied with the great success of these virtual sessions.
Would you like to be one of those taking part in our multifunctional journey? Keep on following us on our website and our social media!