THE ERASMUS+ PROJECT PLANET: PLAN FOR AGRICULTURE RENEWABLE ENERGY TRAINING

The EU Skills Panorama identified RES-related skill needs in agriculture crucial. It underlines the need for improving skills on “using renewable energy”. Green jobs are growing at double rate in Agriculture than other sectors, but there is indeed a lack of technical, management and legal skills needed to upkeep and maintain RES plants on a daily basis. The partners identify these needs and are interested in providing training to fill in this gap. The PLANET consortium has long experience in RES in agriculture. The training programme will address farmers, but also agricultural advisors, and technical students employed on RES in the future. The training will be completely modular and divided into four modules: 1) ICT skills, 2) biogas and biomethane, 3) solid biomass and 4) solar energy (both thermal and photovoltaic). It will be developed following the innovative “flipped classroom” methodology, mixing online training modules, in-class modules, and work-based learning periods, and available in 5 languages. The training plan will last 18 weeks. Trainees will be able to choose only the modules of interest. Trainers involved in the project will also be taught how to use the platform, the in-class training material, and will have access to a trainer’s toolkit. In Italy, France, Austria and Netherlands, 10 trainers and 100 trainees will follow the first experimentation of the programme. Ten trainers from non-participating countries will participate to this experimentation and disseminate the programme in their countries. This training will provide updated support to 1) farmers willing to invest in RES, 2) owners of RES plant to optimise its performance, 3) Advisors and Consultants, and 4) students who followed the programme and acquire ECVET accreditation, increasing their employability and mobility. PLANET will lower the risks associated with RES business in agriculture. We are working to achieve the ECVET certification, in order to have the skills recognized in each EU country. The training material will be available also for teaching the subject of renewable erergies for agriculture. The training material can be seen at: www.erasmus-planet.eu upon registration.