The EVECSA project empowers European agricultural professionals to implement climate-resilient solutions through Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA).
As weather patterns become increasingly unpredictable, strengthening skills and cooperation around Climate-Smart Agriculture becomes essential for farmers, educators, and future agricultural workers.
To achieve this, EVECSA brings together vocational education and training (VET) providers, research institutions, businesses, and public authorities into Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs), in six regions across Europe: The Netherlands, Poland, Finland, Denmark, Sicily (Italy), and Catalonia (Spain).
Through the CoVEs, the project strengthens links between the various actors in the agricultural sector, in part to help make agricultural careers more attractive to young people – exposing them to real agricultural practices and technologies and supporting smoother transitions from education to work.
By bringing innovation and digital tools into training, EVECSA helps prepare both current and future professionals for a changing sector.
By fostering regional and transnational cooperation to strengthen the learning offer, EVECSA reinforces the role of vocational education as a driver of long-term change in agriculture. It helps align skills development with broader sustainability goals, supporting agricultural systems that are better equipped to respond to climate pressures while contributing to food security, quality employment, and the wellbeing of rural communities across Europe.
EVECSA’s Main objectives
Identify needs and resources
Map agri-food skills at regional and transnational levels to address current and future challenges in transitioning to CSA.
Define skill sets
Provide a detailed understanding of the skill sets required for future professions in the climate-smart agricultural sector.
Establish community of practice
Create a diverse vocational learning platform on CSA through a community of practice.
These three interconnected objectives address the structural barriers that slow down the transition to climate‑smart agricultural systems. To achieve these, the project acts at the regional and transnational levels through a number of activities that help ensure that CSA knowledge and innovation are accessible, relevant, and applicable in different local contexts.
What we do
36
Learning activities
including 12 with digital elements in delivery or content.
6
Recruitment initiatives
for sector-based recruitment of learners for CSA.
6
6 Public-private partnerships
for knowledge transfer and skills development in CSA.
6
Transnational knowledge transfer
events for staff at enterprise partners and sector representative organiszations, facilitated by agro-VET partners.
These cross-cutting efforts contribute to creating tangible impact across Europe’s agricultural sector. By strengthening skills, fostering cooperation, and supporting innovation, EVECSA helps farmers and agri‑food professionals implement Climate‑Smart Agriculture practices, ensuring that farming systems are both productive and sustainable.
Vocational education and training becomes more coherent, relevant, and responsive to the needs of the sector: by connecting education providers, research institutions, and industry, the project strengthens the links between learning, knowledge, and practice, ensuring that training is directly aligned with real-world challenges.
Enhancing the resilience and long-term sustainability of regional agricultural systems, EVECSA supports European priorities for a green and digital transition in agriculture, contributing to the objectives of the European Green Deal and broader EU strategies for skills development and education.
How do we do it?
Stages of the EVECSA project
22
Partners
6
Centres of Vocational Excellence
4
Universities
10
Agro-VET providers
2
Knowledge partners
6
Enterprises or industry and sector representative organisations
How do we accomplish all this?
Stages of the EVECSA Project
