THE ECOFAR PROJECT – A CHALLENGE FOR THE FURTHER SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE THROUGH IMPROVING THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG ECO-FARMERS

The agriculture sector is one of the driving sectors within the European Union countries, and nowadays much attention is paid to the sustainable development of this industrial sector. Having in mind that farming is mostly a family activity in most Member States with family labour accounting for more than 90 % of agricultural workforce in Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland and Slovenia, the continuing education of those small farmers is of increasing concern for the European Union Policies. Thus, the project entitled “Development of managerial and entrepreneurial skills of young eco-farmers via joint VET curricula, enhanced qualification profile, assessment standard and sustainable cooperation synergies” (ECOFAR, Project No: 597256-EPP-1-2018-1-BG-EPPKA3-VET-JQ) was supported by the European Union. The main aim of this project was to develop a joint VET qualification curriculum for improvement of the managerial and entrepreneurial skills of young eco-farmers by including improved transparency, comparability and recognition of those qualifications. In order to develop further the knowledge, skills and competences of young eco-farmer entrepreneurs, a curriculum composed of 7 modules was developed by the researchers of the projects partners from Bulgaria, Greece, Slovenia and Turkey. In the present study, the main objectives, expected results and expected impact of the project as well as the development of the joint qualification curriculum are described.