Objectives

Project objectives

The EduSAF project aims to achieve the following five specific objectives that are common to the wide range of contexts in the Latin American agrifood sector.

Objective 1

To prioritise curricular changes by identifying the real needs of social actors, taking into account:

a) the impact and environmental sustainability of the activities and processes involved in the agrifood system;

b) increased resilience to the effects of climate change;

c) use of appropriate technologies to improve processes considering local contexts and knowledge;

d) training requirements with regard to the labour market demand.

This objective will be achieved through the participation of all relevant social actors and a comprehensive identification of their needs in each participating Latin American country. To this end, it is essential that the identified needs are thoroughly documented and cover the entire geographical region represented by the participating Latin American higher education institutions (HEIs), with at least 1 representative of each social actor per country. The identified needs must be rigorously compared with the training provisions offered in each of the programmes contemplated in the project and designated for specific target groups.

Objective 2

To improve the capacities of the participating Latin American HEIs by providing teacher training in the thematic areas of this project: environmental sustainability and evaluation of the impact of agrifood systems through life cycle assessment; resilience to the effects of climate change; and the use of digital tools and green technologies to support the agrifood system.

This objective will be achieved through the commitment of teachers from all participating Latin American HEIs to attend five specialised training workshops. These workshops will be adapted to the needs identified in Work Package 3. To assess their effectiveness, satisfaction surveys and quality control evaluations will be conducted to determine whether the course content covers at least 50 % of the identified needs, and whether the content has been applied.

Objective 3

To improve the training offer through curricular updating and laboratory practices, aimed at the development of graduates’ competencies, skills and critical thinking in relation to the environmental impact of agrifood processes, resilience to climate change, use of appropriate technologies, and the requirements of the labour market, taking into account local needs and knowledge.  This will include transdisciplinary education processes such as problem-solving methodologies or innovation days.

To achieve this objective, 12 courses will be developed (minimum 2 per HEI), covering at least 80 % of the content in which teachers will be trained, to be incorporated into existing programmes. Four new study programmes will be established and five laboratories will be modernised to host internships that will be carried out before the end of the project. Free MOOCs will also be created for students and teachers incorporating all the material developed for the teacher training workshops.

Objective 4

To enhance the integration, transdisciplinarity, and exchange of information, knowledge, experiences, and best practices in the region. This will create synergies between academia and the socioeconomic sectors of the agrifood system, ensuring the sustainability of the project outcomes beyond its completion.

Objective 5

To strengthen the internationalisation process by promoting international scientific cooperation concerning the life cycle of agrifood processes. Objectives 4 and 5 will be realised through a diverse range of activities and deliverables whose key success indicators are described in the Logical Framework Matrix.