The European green agricultural sector (food, agri, animal husbandry, nature, living environment and leisure) is from an economic, social and sustainable point of view important for a prosperous, sustainable and green future worldwide. The European Green Deal and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) emphasize this position and the challenges the green sector needs to face. The partners of this project are inspired by these goals and believe that green agriculture educational institutes on secondary, tertiair and higher level should take an important role in educating enough qualified students who are well prepared with the appropriate green sustainable and circular skills to achieve these goals. However the problem all partners face is that the number of students entering their green agricultural schools is dropping steadily, while the number of students is already far from enough to fulfil the jobs within the green job market. The main causes for this gap between the jobs related to the green job market and upcoming green circular society and the students’ needs are:1)the lack of flexibility of schools to modernize their programs quickly enough;2)the location of the schools in rural areas, while the students are mainly living in the cities;3)the attractiveness of the green schools to new target groups that are not traditionally their main target group;4)the lack of cooperation with regional business and social service organisations also related to other sectors (cross-overs);5)the increasing but unknown career perspective related to green knowledge and skills; 6)the large number of students who are not capable of making a thought-out choice of education.The overall European wide analysis is that the necessary increase of the number of students with innovative, green, circular skills and knowledge might be achieved by expanding additional efforts to acquire and retain new target groups, especially the multicultural urbanised youth and lifelong learners. We also believe that the attractiveness of green VET-schools to these new target groups can increase by positioning green schools and programs in a positive and innovative way and within the context of our new sustainable and green society of tomorrow. This can be achieved by acting from the perspective of the Whole School Approach of Sustainable Development. An approach in which one works on the renewal of the curriculum, didactics, business operations, professionalization and cooperation with the surroundings of the school from an integral and interdisciplinary viewpoint.In PROGRESS we will create a living community of green VET-schools in Europe in which we exchange good practises and co-operate to find solutions to renew and promote our schools, programs and courses aiming to attract new types of students like urbanised youth and lifelong learners and make them aware of the great opportunities green knowledge and skills and the green sector in general can provide them. The good practises with all kinds of innovative methods and practical tools and recommendations will be shared and disseminated on a local, regional, national and EU-level through a multimedia and inspiring website, EUROPEA and multiplier events.

D4 Entrepreneurship (Dream:Dare:Design:Do) is a partnership between six VET colleges (UK, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain and Slovenia) and a Business Incubation Centre in the UK. VET partners will also act as a host for 90 wider entrepreneurship ecosystem organisations/enterprises to participate.Commencing on 1 September 2020 and finishing on 31 August 2023 this is a three year project whereby 42 VET staff and 540 students from five countries will form six D4 Entrepreneurship Clubs and participate in Design Thinking projects aimed at developing new, innovative, creative, entrepreneurial education. VET students will have the opportunity to develop innovative ideas and ‘Pitch’ solutions to solve real-world challenges.Staff from the Business Incubation Centre will act as a source of expertise in developing a transnational Design Thinking competition and independently evaluate the project.Intellectual outcomes will include two D4 Entrepreneurship toolkits, one aimed at implementing Design Thinking methodologies with VET students and the other aimed at wider staff development and roll out of Design Thinking across different vocational sector and student levels.As well as Certificates of attendance all participating VET students will receive Europass recognition. Longer term it is anticipated that formal qualifications in implementing Design Thinking methodologies will be available for VET staff (facilitators) and VET Students (practitioners)Four transnational meetings, three Blended Mobilities and two Joint Staff Training event will be hosted in each of the five partner countries ensuring staff and students gain transnational experience.

Water is life. It is a precondition for human, animal, and plant life as well as an indispensable resource for the economy and fundamental in climate regulation.PoVE Water Scale-up is a joint initiative of 8 VET schools, 7 Water industry professionals, 4 academic partners and 3 support partners in Europe (NL,DE,MT,CZ,LV,EE,BE) and beyond (SA) to educate our VET students to become agile, digitally skilled and sustainable oriented water sector professionals that our future desperately needs.The aim of the project is to integrate Vocational Excellence in the Water sector, thus ensuring high quality skills and competences that lead to quality jobs and careers, meeting the needs of an innovative, inclusive and sustainable economy.Objectives and activities are:• Expand the holistic approach to Vocational Excellence in the EU Water sector by securing a central role of VET in the regional Innovation Ecosystems and further developing strong and enduring relationships between VET, research & the water industry.• To expand PoVE Water geographically in a sustainable way (environmentally and economically) in line with the EU Green deal by setting up and interlinking CoVE Water networks that operate on interregional level.• Drive innovation in water related VET on a regional and EU level by developing contemporary (Digital, VR) learning materials.• Ensure that current and future water sector professionals have the key skills & competences demanded by developing blended training programmes.• Increasing student’s, teacher’s and professional’s competence for international mobilities by organising international mobilities as common practise in Water related VET.• Building EU and global recognition for PoVE Water as a worldwide point of reference for VET in the water sector.• Future proof the workforce for the Water sector and avoid a brain- & skillsdrain by securing current and increasing future students in water related studies.

"This proposal, “Building an Applied Research facility into COVE” (BARCOVE) aims to develop an innovative and norm-setting model for school-company collaboration around VET. It focuses on ap-plied research as a lever for technical innovation in urban space and water management. Further, it responds to current challenges placed on VET e.g. the constant demand for innovative technical solu-tions, which climate adaptation and the green transition necessitate. Finally, it links to the companies' need for skilled employees and to VET’s need to attract highly motivated students committed to sci-ence, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and entrepreneurship.After an initial mapping/analysis of existing knowledge of applied research in VET, it develops and tests a forward-looking and innovative VET setting, where VET students, professionals and educators develop innovative solutions to concrete challenges that companies face in urban space and water management. Subsequently, BARCOVE mainstreams the knowledge gained with applied research into two training modules for VET educators/employers, and into a transferable “Recipe Book”.BARCOVE involves about 50 professionals and VET trainers from 8 partners in 4 partner countries (DK, NL, ES, and RO). In addition, about 40 VET students will participate in the project's Hackathon and in the subsequent development and testing of technical solutions.The project will produce:•a mapping & analysis report on AR in VET;•a proven pedagogical-innovative development concept documented both audio-visually and in writing;•two teaching modules with a focus on the integration of applied research in the school-company collaboration;•a detailed reference framework that presents the project's results in a transferable context, and•a format for an annual ""Green Future Festival"".The produced outputs are disseminated among all European CoVEs, i.a. EPLUG and PoVE Water, both key stakeholders in future urban space and water."

This project has been inspired by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. Regarding sustainability issues, there are 3 key problems:1.The problems are so overwhelming that individual people feel that they have no chance to make difference. Our students are acutely aware of the problems, yet they feel helpless.2.Vast problems require concrete changes in our behaviour, which is hard. It is much easier to point the finger at someone else. Very often, the blaming finger has been pointing to the agribusiness.3.The problems are so vast that no sector nor no single country can resolve them alone; we need to take a communal approach and learn from the good practices of others.This project seeks solutions to these problems in our context: VET within the green sector. Instead of being part of the problem, the agribusiness sector needs to part of the solution. The hope lies in young people and education, but we need to develop VET and tackle real-life issues communally and in international cooperation.Therefore, this project has 3 main goals: 1.To empower students to contribute to the SDGs. For this, we need -learner-centred pedagogical approaches,-to give them a positive experience of tackling issues communally, and in international cooperation,-provide them with the skills and networks needed to continue to do so in the future.2.To empower students, teaching staff needs to be well-equipped to provide meaningful education for sustainability -with the contribution of representatives from the world of work, -using authentic, real-life learning challenges related to SDG 12 and 13, -and innovative, learner-centred pedagogical approaches.3.We need to develop innovative sustainability solutions and share them, as well as other good practices, in our own regions and in the whole field.How?The developing partners will arrange 4 workshops in which an innovative, learner-centred pedagogical approach is presented to the others in practice. During the workshops international student teams (EQF levels 3-4) tackle a real-life challenge that's related to the SDGs and provided by regional stakeholders. This enables the students to increase key competences such as communication, problem-solving, teamwork, and boundary-crossing skills, and to network with their future European colleagues while inspiring them to solving problems in European cooperation and empowering them.The workshop allows the teachers to learn the innovative pedagogical approach and evaluate how it should be localized to better fit their own context. To disseminate the pedagogical approaches wider, we will develop Manuals. The Manuals will be tested by 4 testing partners. Each will arrange a workshop in their own country piloting one approach, which will provide direct feedback on the transferability of the pedagogical approaches and on the usefulness of the Manuals.The aspect of sharing good practices will also be covered in the workshops: At least 2 innovative sustainability solutions from regional stakeholders in each of the partner countries will be shared. This will inspire the students and widen the knowledge of the teachers. We will collect these good practices to support the dissemination among regional stakeholders in each country. In addition, we will collect the real-life learning challenges tackled during the workshops and the solutions developed by the student teams. These provide good practices and inspiration to other farmers. In addition, they will serve as teaching material as such for other VET providers within the green sector. The Intellectual Outputs will be disseminated by each partner according to our carefully designed dissemination strategy. The VET providers in the green sector being very well organized both at national and European level through the Europea International network. Therefore, this project has a good chance to reach considerable sectoral impact:-Our students will be empowered to become ambassadors of sustainability engaging in active citizenship regarding sustainability issues.-The 4 innovative pedagogical approaches will spread to other schools in Europe, improving the quality of VET in the green sector.-Green VET schools will involve companies, regional authorities and other stakeholders so students can contribute to tackling environmental problems together, thus improving the labour market relevance of VET and enhancing its attractiveness in the eyes of the students.-Good practices and innovative solutions in the field of sustainability will spread between schools, stakeholders such as companies, professional bodies, municipalities, regions and countries. On a long term, this will help the agribusiness to develop in a future-proof way, in line with EU policy.All in all, this project will, for its part, contribute to the achievement of the European and global sustainability goals in the green sector and develop the quality and attractiveness of VET.