FARMER is an Erasmus+ Capacity Building in VET project supporting vocational education and training systems in the Western Balkans to respond more effectively to changing skills needs in the agri-food sector.
Agriculture and food production are being reshaped by digital tools, green transition requirements and new agri-tech business models. These changes create demand for new combinations of practical, digital and green skills. At the same time, VET schools need stronger mechanisms to update curricula, cooperate with employers and translate innovation into learning.
FARMER works with VET schools, teachers, tech-based start-ups, rural development actors and policymakers in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. The project supports them to jointly design, test and promote modular curriculum innovations that are closer to real workplace needs and easier to adapt as the sector changes.
Through training, mobility, curriculum co-creation, digital resources and policy dialogue, FARMER strengthens the role of VET providers in shaping relevant learning outcomes and building regular exchange with the labour market. It also develops tools and replication guidance for wider use across the Western Balkans and beyond.
Why FARMER?
Agri-food systems cannot become greener and more digital without people who have the right skills. Yet curriculum change often moves more slowly than technological change, and cooperation between schools and employers is still too often informal, occasional or dependent on individual initiative. FARMER starts from a practical question: how can VET schools become better equipped to prepare learners for the real changes happening in agriculture and food production? The project responds by bringing together schools, teachers, learners, start-ups, SMEs, rural development organisations and policymakers. Instead of treating curriculum reform as a purely administrative process, FARMER tests a co-creation model in which education providers and labour-market actors work together to identify skills needs, adapt curricula and validate learning outcomes.
What FARMER works on
Area What it means in practice
Capacity for
change
Training, mobility and online learning activities for VET
teachers and project actors.
Curriculum
innovation
Modified curricula, one new curriculum and a methodology for
modular curriculum innovation.
School–employer
exchange
Stronger cooperation between VET schools, agri-tech actors
and labour-market stakeholders.
Policy uptake and
replication
Open resources, policy conclusions and replication guidance
for wider use in the Western Balkans and beyond.
Who FARMER is for
FARMER is designed for VET schools, teachers and learners preparing for work in the agri-food sector. It is also relevant for agri-tech start-ups, SMEs and employers that need better links with education providers, as well as for policymakers and institutions working on VET reform, skills, agriculture, rural development and regional cooperation. For wider Western Balkans and EU-level stakeholders, FARMER offers a tested model for making agri-food VET more responsive to green and digital skills needs.
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