A European skills strategy for the agri-food and forestry sectors – key challenges and prerequisites

The Erasmus+ FIELDS project aims to contribute to skill enhancement of workers in the agriculture, food industry and forestry sectors, to be able to make full use of the opportunities and comply with requirements of the ‘’Twin’’ Green and Digital transition. The FIELDS project focuses on the domains Digitalization, Sustainability, Bio-Economy and Management & Entrepreneurship. Skills include ‘’hard’’/ measurable and technology based skills as well as ‘’soft’’ / transversal skills.

This paper reports on key challenges and prerequisites for the development of a European Agri-Food and Forestry Skills Strategy. Starting with the results of a European agri-food-forestry trend analysis and focus groups discussion on skill and training needs in 10 European countries, this paper presents the results of a follow-up survey among key stakeholders of the European skills ecosystem, including the following topics: prerequisites for the development of training programs, harmonization challenges in the European agri-food and forestry skills ecosystem, and monitoring and key performance indicators the European agri-food and forestry skills ecosystem.