INSIST-VAT - Institutional, Sustainable and Innovative Strengthening of Vocational Agricultural Training in Albania

"The national strategy of the Albanian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) for rural development and fisheries underlines the role of Agricultural Knowledge as the main pillar to improve sustainable food systems: ln January 2022, the MARD launched a strategy to strengthen producers’ capacity and enable them to adopt resilient practices by national training. In this context, the current offer in terms of agricultural advice -partly deployed via 5 Technology Transfer Centers- has to strengthen its capacities.The aim of this project is to set up a training offer at the Agricultural University of Tirana (UBT) which gathers and cooperates with national and regional actors, serving as a seed of the Albanian Agricultural Knowledge & Innovation Systems (AKIS).The INSIST-VAT CB VET project will meet the missions entrusted to the UBT by the MARD for designing a ""producers' academy"" and offering training courses to producers and extension workers. INSIST-VAT will participate in:- The identification of the training needs of producers and extension workers; - The design of a training offer to meet the needs of producers and extension workers; - The organization, structuration and integration of a training center at the UBT, in connection with the departments & faculties concerned; -The setting-up of an interactive online platform as a tool for producers training;-The sustainability of the training center in terms of training offer, financing and national and international networking;- The involvement of Kosovo in this process -a country that faces the same agricultural challenges and training needs- so as to allow the future transferability of this training tools to Kosovo."