<< Background >>The EU food and drink industry is the first manufacturing industry in the EU, leading in terms of turnover (€1,2 billion), value added (€266 billion) and employment (4,82 million people). 99% of the European food and drink companies are SMEs (291 000), accounting for 42,7% of food and drink turnover, and 58,1% of food and drink employment (Eurostat, LEI Wageningen UR, UN COMTRADE). However, a shortage of skills can be observed in the European food industry. Evolution of trends in food consumption patterns, combined with global geopolitical trends, are currently causing large scale skills shortages for food and beverage manufacturers: companies in Europe report that their food production and manufacturing activities are under pressure to up-skill in digital technologies and automation. From engineering, production operations and R&D to logistics, supply chain and procurement, the skills shortage within the food industry is observable in all roles and sectors. The European companies envision that by 2030, the industry will have been transformed by robotic workers and digital logistics systems. This means that food producers across Europe will need polyvalent and digitally operational employees, able to adapt to trends evolution and to be formed quickly to new processes and production tools.To reinforce employment and skills adequation in the food sector, vocational training thus needs to be developed further, and modernized to answer the needs and preferences of younger learners.This is where the virtual reality training has a role to play: this innovative training method meets professionalization needs by reducing training time, reducing the risk of accidents, and developing poly-competence amongst trainees. The VIRTUALITY project will therefore encourage and develop the use of Virtual reality training in Austria, Belgium and France to answer the problematics developed above: The Virtual Reality training modules will provide opportunities for career development through accelerated and professionalized training.<< Objectives >>The main goals of the VIRTUALITY project are to :- Develop innovative training tools and adapt vocational education and training to labour market needs- Encourage the development of sustainable and safe practices through virtual reality vocational training- Develop the attractiveness of training courses & thus the skills levels of the sector's players- Develop the attractiveness of the food sector at European level<< Implementation >>Different activities will be implemented in the framework of the project: WP1 will focus on the gathering of data on the state of the art of existing Virtual reality training courses and on the best practices in the use of Virtual Reality training, whereas WP2 will aim to co-construct a virtual reality training module composed of 3 scenarios per country and insert it on the CampNum platform. WP3 will be dedicated to the testing of the Virtual reality module in training centres and to the pedagogical and technical training of trainers in the use of VR resources and equipment. These activities will lead to WP4 and the development of an implementation and transferability toolkit, through the compilation of different deliverables. WP4 will aim to support the replication of the project by new users, and to propose transferability recommendations and guidelines for the use of the project’s results, to ensure transferability and long-term sustainability of the project’s results at the European scale.Dissemination and communication activities (on-line and off-line communication, multiplier events, networking actions…) will be implemented through WP5, to increase the visibility of the project and enhance the transferability of its results. Finally, WP6 will focus on project’s management activities.<< Results >>The project has 5 main project’s results: - A white book on best practices in virtual reality training for agri-food companies- A virtual reality training module co-constructed by 3 countries, 9 scenarios- A report on the integration of the virtual reality module in training centres- An implementation and transferability toolkit At the local and regional level, the project will increase the attractivity of the training centres, by developing their training offer and training tools and offering guidelines for accelerated and highly professionalizing formations based on Virtual Reality modules. The Virtual Reality module and its accompanying tools will also accelerate internal mobility in the food companies: employees will be able to upgrade their skills and develop their knowledge more quickly and at a lower cost than before, especially for mechanical positions. At the company level, another impact should be the reduction of work accidents on production lines, a better management of breakdowns and unexpected situations, and an increase in efficiency.At the national level, employment in the food sector should increase, as well as the attractiveness of the sector, especially for students. The development of political awareness regarding recruitment problems in the food sector is expected, along with a renewed support for the digitalization of training for the development of multi-skilling and sustainable employment.Finally, at the European level, VR training will be transferred, replicated, and reach new countries and sectors. The image of the food sector at the European level should improve and the sector become more attractive.

<< Background >>The Food & Drink industry is the EU largest manufacturing sector in terms of turnover, value added and employment. Despite of market turmoils also due to Covid-19, it remains stable and dominates the EU external trade. Higher Education and training activities in the food sectors are growing in the EU largely dominated by conventional study programmes and teaching methodologies that in general do not allow the achievement of competences and skills needed by the current and future job market.<< Objectives >>The ASKFOOD main aim was to create a permanent knowledge sharing alliance between businesses, business associated organisations and Universities in the food and food-related sectors. Establishing such an alliance, the ASKFOOD consortium: (1) created the necessary frame for collaboration, (2) converted innovative concepts into new tools to be provided within this frame(3)tested and applied innovative training methodologies(4)ensured sustainability by establishing a permanent alliance<< Implementation >>The project has:-implemented a series of virtual tools to early discovery and anticipate trends and related emerging skills-implemented an interactive platform and dynamic networking for multisector knowledge sharing and co-creation-improve training models, by launching disruptive, learner-led and cross-industry training schemes, i.e. Reverse incubator -set up common tools and organizational frame that will guarantee the sustainability of the network: the permanent Observatory.<< Results >>•Cross-industry knowledge platforms (Knowledge and Training Hub and Clusters) •Open Innovation framework to modernize education/training (ASKFOOD DBTE)•Interactive repository of emerging skills and professional profiles in the food sector in a forward-looking perspective (Interactive Atlas) so to forecast future skill needs (Forecast Aggregator) •Acceleration and growth hacking solutions (Reversed Incubator, ASKFOOD Garage Labs)•Permanent ASKFOOD Observatory

Rapid changes in the economy and the market framework are a big challenge for the competition of the European Food Industry. The transfer of scientific knowledge and innovation from the research side to the food industry is limited. Real life cases and demand from Industry is not well enough taken up into academic curricula. Staff from university and industry side would both benefit from jointly created CPD programs. Difficulties in the collaboration of universities with companies are often associated with the lack of settings or frameworks to enable an easy collaboration.The proposed “European Food Studies &Training Alliance” EuFooD-STA will establish and provide such a required frame for collaborations between the company and the academic sector by developing the independent ““EuFooD-STA Centre” (virtual platform plus physical hubs) to implement, sustain and extend the developments of this alliance.The project will build up on existing and new results and demand analysis in progress thus ensuring a most cost efficient and up to date basis for the project. 2 multiplier organisations that work as mediators between Research and Companies will expose the project to a great number of Industry & SMEs. The project will focus on the development and boosting of innovative food science & technology studies to improve professional skills of graduates, teachers and industry staff. CPD programmes including tools and approaches (such as placement of University teachers in Industry and participation of industry staff in academic modules) will be set up and improved. The consortium will collect, combine and improve trainings tools and approaches and make this available in a digital library on an open access basis.The developed studies & training, sustained via the EuFooD-STA Centre, will improve the education system of food graduates, teachers and industry staff and provide the frame for continuous development and collaboration between the academic and industry sector.

The Pact for Skill roundtable raised several issues the Agrifood secThe Pact for Skill roundtable raised several issues the Agrifood sector is facing and identified potential ways of overcoming them: upskilling and reskilling workers; intersectoral skill transfers; increased attractiveness of the sector to youth; digital transition; partnerships between learning institutions and companies.The I-RESTART project aims at reskilling and upskilling the workforce in the agrifood and veterinary sectors, retrain the employees leaving the heavy industry to hire them in the agrifood sector, and engage some students that want to enter the agrifood labor market, to improve their digital skills and facilitate the transition to the Green Deal initiative.To reach the above-mentioned objectives, I-RESTART will facilitate the inter-sectoral and intergenerational skills transfers through the adoption of an innovative micro-credentials methodology and the work-based learning experiences that will provide inclusive, flexible and engaging work-based patterns with mentors while opening the ecosystem also to external workers.The project, complementing the FIELDS Blueprint on agriculture and forestry, will provide the tools to tackle future challenges with the offering of 10 occupational profiles for a total of 3200 hours of training. In total 16 trainers and 200 trainees will benefit from the pilot training, and 40 students will complete the work-based learning scheme that also includes the advanced entrepreneurial skills.The 29 partners consortium from 11 countries will identify skills needed and gaps, create occupational profiles, detailed curricula, design European strategies and 10 country roadmaps to reflect the country's needs while keeping EU quality standards (ESCO, EQAVET) to address the mobility of learners through Europe.A strong connection will be established with the Pact for Skills initiative, in order to make useful content for the members that will implement the pact.

There are new challenges and opportunities for agriculture today, driven by the climate change, the greening of the products and processes, the reuse of side-stream products, the raised complexity of the chain and the increased availability of information.However, to successfully address and react to these drivers, agriculture and forestry needs new business models and skills. The identification of existing and emerging skills needs in bio-economy, agricultural sustainability and for the use of digital technology, is of paramount importance in order to develop a strategic approach to keep the European agricultural sector competitive and sustainable in the long term.The multi-stakeholder approach in the FIELDS project, with 30 partners from 12 countries (HEI, VET providers, agricultural and forestry sector representatives and agrifood industry) will allow tackling the complexity of the issues EU agriculture faces today.The FIELDS approach, starting from the current and future trends and skills needed, will lead to a sustainable European strategy to address these skill gaps. Since agriculture issues and opportunities differs a lot from country to country, the EU strategy will be customised to have a country strategy for 7 countries. It will address country-specific actions, occupational profiles and training material to reflect the country needs while keeping EU quality standards (ESCO, EQAVET, ECVET) to address the mobility of learners through Europe concretely.An Agriculture SSA will be established during the project to build upon the regulatory frameworks and opportunities at EU and country level, while proposing concrete and practical initiatives to address skills challenges, in particular through offering modular training inside the project while guaranteeing mobility of workers within the agriculture, forestry and agrifood industry.