Viridis Loci ACADEMY

ABOUT

The Viridis Loci project aims at providing specialized VET training/transfer of skills in the correct management of green areas and parks in municipalities to public technicians and private subjects who are interested in dealing with an advanced professional management of urban nature (with special regards to those impacted by pandemic) and to graduates in three European islands: Sardinia, the Balearics and Madeira. The partnership will actively cooperate to reach this aim, and it is composed by public bodies, SMEs, and an international VET provider (ABA international). The contribution of ABA International will be essential to provide the ICT e-learning platform and transfer knowledge to make the best use of ICT tools; Fitoconsult will provide the contents for the realization of the outputs while ATM will provide contents for the preparation of outputs and will coordinate the methods of knowledge transfer. ABA International will also implement the training internationally and will share it among the 29 countries that are part of its network. Implementation will also be assured by the associated partners. The consortium presented this project for three main reasons:

1) Environmental sustainability and the fight against climate change: it emphasizes the role of wellmanaged green areas/parks within cities and municipalities in general as providers of ecosystem services (benefits that people obtain from nature, e.g.,, climate regulation, CO2 capture, air quality improvement, cultural values, public health and biodiversity conservation).

2) Increase Inclusion: The training will address the need for updating to bridge the knowledge gap of those who operate in the public and private sectors or who intend to enter this job market. The project will operate in three island contexts in southern Europe, which due to their geography, tend to be isolated and at a permanent economic disadvantage compared to other regions of the continent. Islands tend to lag behind in economic terms and innovation processes negatively impact the communities residing on the islands. Unemployment rates in the three islands are high with dramatic peaks among young people and in all cases higher than the respective national averages: Sardinia (18% - youth unemployment around 45%), Balearic Islands (youth unemployment 17% - around 40%) and Madeira (10% - 50.5% youth unemployment).

3) Overcoming the knowledge gap with the use of ICT technologies to impart a highly technological and innovative working methodology. The project will be innovative, both for the contents and for the methods of conducting the courses (high-tech maintenance methods) and for the methods of carrying out the activities (use of the ICT platform for e-learning and as an innovation storage device) . The platform developed by ABA International will be used as a cutting-edge technology for e-learning at a distance and will alternate with practical workshops, will collect all the teaching material and will also constitute a repository of ideas, exchange of best practices as well as maintaining all deliverables. of the project.