AGRICOM Prepares for Pilot-testing of Competence Model

ESSEN, Germany - April 9, 2013 - PRLog -- After extensive discussions during the last project consortium meeting in Athens at the beginning of March, AGRICOM is preparing to begin the pilot-testing phase of the AGRICOM Competence Model (ACM) in Germany and Italy. The Leibniz-Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ) in Germany and then University of Tuscia in Italy (UNITUS) will conduct their pilot implementation of the ACM in their respective organizations and investigate the model’s practical implications for skills and competence management in the agricultural sector.

“AGRICOM successfully transferred and adapted the Water Competence Model developed through the WACOM project last year,” says Christian M. Stracke, competence expert and coordinator of the AGRICOM project. “After consulting agricultural sector experts and practitioners during the partner’s national workshops and processing their valuable feedback into the AGRICOM Competence Model, the pilot-testing phase will serve to practically validate the model in a variety of national contexts.”

The pilot-testing of the ACM is accompanied by an open discussion for all interested parties made possible through the VOA3R project and its platform – if you would like to contribute to the first competence model for the European agricultural sector, please feel free to visit http://voa3r.cc.uah.es/index.php/groups/viewgroup/25-AGRICOM and communicate your views on important agricultural competences, job profiles, training opportunities and certificates which provide the foundation for the ACM. Professionals and practitioners of water management are also welcome, as the ACM has maintained a special focus on irrigation and hydroponics, in part through its origins in the WACOM Water Competence Model. Furthermore, the pilot-testing and online discussion taking place through the AGRICOM community are complemented by a continuous dialogue with CEN and ISO standardisation committees supporting the ACM’s conformance to established European and international quality standards.

The last consortium meeting in Athens from March 4th to March 6th was essential to planning the pilot-testing phase. Summaries of research and usage results will be presented regularly at conferences focussed on competence modelling and vocational education and training in agricultural jobs, as well as at conferences related with the introduction of ICT in Agriculture. To learn about the newest updates regarding the AGRICOM project, to contact the project consortium, or to learn how the AGRICOM Competence Model could help your human resource management and vocational education and training situation, please visit the project website at www.agriculture-competence.eu/, like the AGRICOM Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Agricom-Project/285137711540920 and follow the AGRICOM Twitter account at https://twitter.com/AGRICOM_Project.

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About the European project AGRICOM:

The main goal of the project AGRICOM is the transfer and adaptation of the WACOM Water Competence Model (WCM) from the water sector to the agricultural sector.

Further main objectives of AGRICOM are:

Identifying and analysing targeted needs and competences that are required by the labour market for specific use cases and jobs from several fields of the agricultural sector
Transferring and adapting the generic WACOM competence model to the AGRICOM competence model (ACM) allowing more agricultural use cases
Pilot-testing the ACM to the jobs specialisations related to agricultural uses of water resources (irrigation, hydroponics, etc.)
Establishing the AGRICOM online community for communication, moderated discussions and exchange of project results, experiences and expertise on competence modelling for vocational education and training in the agricultural sector,
Establishing the AGRICOM web portal and populating it with more agricultural use cases,
Enhancing the transparency of the job profiles in the agricultural sector,
Supporting the conjunction of vocational education and training with the labour market and jobs specialisations.

The main long-term objective and addressed impact is the introduction of competence modelling to the agricultural sector in order to develop a first Agriculture Competence Model as well as to strengthen the transparency and comparability of VET opportunities through the transfer of WCM and the adaptation of ECVET and EQF.

More information about AGRICOM online:

http://www.agriculture-competence.eu

AGRICOM Contact:

Coordinator:        Christian M. Stracke

Organization:       University of Duisburg-Essen

Address:          Universitaetsstr. 9 (ICB)

         45141 Essen, GERMANY

Telephone:          +49 (0)201-183-4410

E-Mail:          christian.stracke@icb.uni-due.de