EDUTRAINING DIGITAL LIVESTOCK

"<< Background >>Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) has spread to various countries since its inception in 2003 and the advent of the 4.0 industry and the Internet of Things (IoT) encouraged to incentivise and develop the PLF. The modern technological approach to animal farming, the ethical and environmental aspects need an emerging profession of specialist with technical knowledge and skills in different farming systems able to assure efficient and modern farm animal management. The great potential of the PLF manager is increasing gradually by the farm industry with the objectives to maintain a good state of health of the livestock, with a good quality of the final product and to guarantee the protection of the environment and the safety the of workers and animals. For these reasons, the introduction of the new technologies is a key tool for the employment of young people with concrete opportunities as emerging modern profession that reflect the importance of the efficency and competitiveness also in the livestock industry and farms. We made surveys to check the quality of the project and services receiving 100% satisfaction on the interest in the project by the tested participants.<< Objectives >>This project provided an opportunity for those who are looking for a new profession to acquire the basics to carry out and perfect the activity of Precision Livestock Farming (PLF). The training offer fully met the demand requested by young people interested in pursuing new professions in compliance with the evolution of the modern livestock labor market by helping to provide specific skills that traditional schooling does not offer in this subject. The training project, designed in this way, ensured that young received training in line with the needs of the livestock market through training on an eLearning platform with free 24/7 access. The project succeeded in making learners understand the fundamental skills necessary for their profession acting in livestock industry and farms. The training objectives coincided with the training needs of the livestock industry and farms who are looking for specialists in the Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) and to the young that want to enter in this emerging profession. This project reduces the consumption of paper because all applications, lessons and everything can be done online in a clear and accessible way.<< Implementation >>All activities included in the project have been realised, implemented and made usable for participants, partners, stakeholders via the platform that we created https://www.edutrainingdigitalivestock.org/ publishing precise information about Erasmus+, the detailed information on the project, the objectives and rules of admission, the code of conduct, the broad assurance of participation without any form of discrimination, the promo leaflet, a webpage with an overview of EU research innovation activities and their achievements in livestock and agriculture development. Each admitted learner was sent a welcome email along with access keys to the training areas. The training package consisted in 5 modules containing 20 lessons of 30 minutes for total of 10 training hours. We created a user web chat, a STAFF ROOM to share all project materials, we created the Dictionay on PLF terms, launch press campaign, social media diffusion, tutoring service, uploaded the training plan with all lessons including handouts that can be consulted and downloaded, performed LEARNING TESTS, delivered 100 certificates to learners who passed at least 70% of the final test, created Excellence Career Gateway, involved stakeholders and professional categories<< Results >>All project objectives were achieved by far exceeding expectations. 100 learners took part as declared in the initial project approved, of whom 44 Italians, 35 Slovakians, 21 Greeks participated and completed the training course receiving their certificate of promotion. After the Erasmus + period, we continue to receive many applications for our Erasmus project proving that our project continues to attract young people from Europe and outside the EU. The web platform currently registers over 2350 visitors, our LinkedIn channel has exceeded 2400 followers. Thanks to the sharing of the stakeholders involved in Italy, Greece and Slovakia we performed a high dissemination of the project and through their contacts we quantify their pool at over 166,912 followers: Facebook 149,650 followers, Twitter 5440 followers, LinkedIn 2122 followers. 32 press articles have been published on the web, social channels, magazines, promotional videos and multimedia posts have also been published on LINKEDIN. Following our survey, 86% of students at the end of the training course expressed the desire to participate in other initiatives promoted by ERASMUS + and joined the initiative ""Excellence Career Gateway""."