It’s official. The FTS member consortium around vocational workforce development for Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) have been awarded the EU Erasmus Plus PONICSVET EXPANDED project grant.
The project will develop online training courses under the ECVET – Vocational Education and Training – platform for five different European countries (Italy, Belgium, Germany, Latvia and the Netherlands). Partners are joining forces to create interactive up to date online training assets and develop the framework for the hydroponic technician profile. ECVET provides an excellent universal framework to validate achievements of learners, increasing their accessibility, flexibility and mobility, leading to greater recognition of their qualifications and enhanced ability to collaborate and gain high quality employment.
Currently, the lack of micro-credentialing in agriculture courses, alongside zero quality standards, recognition and trusted content providers are considerable challenges. This project is tackling these challenges, effectively supporting the countless eager learners and existing struggling farmers that are in need of retraining as well as the young tech-savvy newcomers to agriculture. Controlled Environment Agriculture is an emerging technology with triple climate adoption transformation potential, providing solutions to a seriously challenged agriculture community.
The 36-month project, through August 2025 enables the partnership to develop sustainable learning assets based on entry level CEA courses for the respective regions. It is the declared intention of the partnership to utilise this funding support by the European Union to additionally seek private matching funds to accelerate the project and take it to other regions, building up further modules that will build upon the basic free courses accredited by the ECVET system.
FarmTech Society is an international non-profit association representing the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) sector, consisting of 75 companies with over 60,000 employees in 28 countries. FTS was founded to be a pre-competitive voice and an independent representation for the sector, to raise awareness and help to support fledgling startups and industry stakeholder from innovation driven solution provider into maturing industry players with a growing market share. CEA is positioned to provide an increasingly significant contribution to food security, sovereignty, digital adaptation, local economies, R&D investments, STEM job opportunities and much more.
Delphy stands for Worldwide Expertise for Food & Flowers. As an independent knowledge provider, Delphy is the company that delivers know-how and expertise to our partners worldwide. With over 240 employees and several subsidiaries all over the world, we are the leading privately owned knowledge company in all plant production-related sectors. Our core business is knowledge development and knowledge implementation focused on optimizing cultivation practices. Delphy delivers its services through research, consultancy, education, and training.
Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies is a higher education and science establishment of the Republic of Latvia, where scientific research as well as academic and professional study programmes are carried out. Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies is one of the leading universities of science and technologies in the Baltic Sea region, specializing in the sustainable use of natural resources aimed at the enhancement of quality of life for society. The main goal of the University is to create intellectual potential for providing sustainable development of Latvia and its countryside in particular while becoming an up-to-date, internationally recognized and prestigious university, which actively integrates into the united European space of higher education and science.
Festo Didactic is the world-leading equipment and solution provider for technical education. We design and implement learning laboratories, educational equipment and programs that train people to perform in highly dynamic and complex industrial environments. Our goal is to maximize the learning success in educational institutions and industrial companies around the globe.
CESAR (Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development) is an Agricultural Advisory Service and CVET Provider, spinoff of the Dept. of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Science of the University of Perugia. The Centre is specialised in providing training, research, and consultancy services in the areas of rural development, agrifood, European policies, and the environment. CESAR carries out study and research aimed at regional socio-economic development through measures to promote sustainable agriculture. The macro-areas of intervention cover territorial and local development, agricultural productive systems, agro-industry, and the valorisation and conservation of natural and environmental resources.