IMPACT

The target groups in this proposal include: graduates, researchers, faculty staff, educational institutes with an interest in professional oriented and practice-based education, SMEs, farm enterprises, agricultural industry, local communities and municipalities and educational decision-makers (for example educational ministries responsible for curriculum design and support for implementation, environment and agriculture).

These target groups are represented in the consortium as well – we have members from formal education, farm associations and enterprises and educational policy level. Partner HEIs are engaged in projects focusing on enterprise-university cooperation, agriculture management and operate their own networking structures – therefore enjoy a privileged situation in the region and can easily reach our target groups.

To ensure a broad impact on all target groups, dissemination of the project results is organised through a layered approach:

1. Firstly, inside the HE partner institutions. Internal dissemination will be done to promote the services offered through internal portals, infodays, rector’s speeches and organizational charts. Students, researchers and academic staff will be aware of the opportunities available for field work, internships, etc. They will be able to benefit directly from the trainings and practice.

2. Secondly, reinforcing direct connections between both HEIs and enterprises. Many partners have good links to ministries through their involvement in national projects. WP 4 results will be directly targeted to the Ministries involved since it is necessary to regulate the framework for internships and corresponding certifications. Policy advice will be done at three levels:

3. Thirdly, establishing connections with farm enterprises and industry with which the partners have direct links (including chambers of commerce, agribusiness associations but also other bodies interested in practice-based education and those that require farm data collection (such as National Agencies, Ministries of Agriculture, Research Institutes, etc). This will be done during the year 3 of the project. Through the creation of a specific databank, partners will provide opportunities for strengthening the role of internships especially in farm data collection processes. We realize the need for support on all actors’ sides. The databank will provide statistics that can be useful for the needs of farm enterprises, economists, policy makers and decision-makers in the agricultural sector.

4. Other HEIs in third countries through multiplier workshops

5. Finally - through publications, round tables, conferences, presentations, participation in dissemination activities, etc - the broader civil society, rural communities, farm associations, entrepreneurial and educational world inside and outside AM, UKR and UZ. A first annual conference will inform practitioners and decision makers about EU models of internship programs and enterprise-university cooperation and make emphasis on the ECQIP as a reference model. The second annual dissemination event will demonstrate the portfolio of teaching materials available to deliver practice-based education. It will also serve to promote the regulation of internships between enterprises and universities according to Bologna models while endorsing equal opportunities, health and safety regulations and a full transparency of assessment indicators as well as dissemination on the use of the farm databank. The third conference intends to sustain the project results, present best practices and to hand out a handbook with lessons learned from the piloting phase.