Competence

AGRICOM (AGRIcultural COMpetences) is a project funded by the European Commission, and seeks to improve transparency and comparability of Vocational Educational Training (VET) by establishing a Competence Model for the agricultural sector. 

AGRICOM's inspiration has been the Water Competence Model, which they have transferred and adapted to the world of agriculture. Initial pilot programs will test the validity of the model in different national contexts, starting soon in Germany and Italy.

The Leibniz-Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ) in Germany and then University of Tuscia in Italy (UNITUS) will implement the model in their own organizations, and investigate its practical implications for skills and competence management in the agricultural sector.

If you are interested in contributing to the first competence model for the European agricultural sector, you can join the open discussion run through the VOA3R project. Click here to share your views on important agricultural competences, job profiles, training opportunities, and certificates that lay the foundation for the ACM. 

To learn about the newest updates regarding the AGRICOM project, to contact the project consortium, or to learn how the AGRICOM Competence Model could help your human resource management and vocational education and training situation, visit the project website.

The Global Headquarters of the FAO stands near the impressive Circus Maximus, the first and largest stadium in the Roman Empire, and its expansive facilities will provide ample space to the participants of LINQ 2013. Furthermore, the FAO’s development of global standards in food and agriculture-related policies (including training and education) makes it an ideal venue for LINQ 2013.

This year's LINQ 2013 has "Innovations and Quality: The Future of Digital Resources" as its motto, and addresses and invites experts who are active in the field of Innovations and Quality in Lifelong Learning (LLL).

The LINQ 2013 conference fee will remain reduced at the early-bird rate of 90€ until the 31st of March 2013, after which it will rise to 150€. For further information about conference fees, requirements, and other details about LINQ 2013, please visit the conference website.  

Schools and districts around the country are using these tools in a variety of ways. If you are interested in learning more about the Education Competency Wheel please consider attending the Microsoft Institute.

The Education Competencies represent many of the attributes, behaviors, areas of knowledge, skills, and abilities required for successful job performance. Each Education Competency includes a definition, four levels of proficiency, sample interview questions, activities and resources to develop skills, and examples of overdoing the competency.

Overall, we find that students’ PISA test scores in reading, mathematics and science increase with the intensity of computer use for Gaming activities while they decrease with the intensity of computer use for activities that are more related with school curricula (i.e. Communication and Collaboration activities; Technical Operations/Info Retrieval activities; Creation of Content and Knowledge Problem Solving activities). However the number of activities (and hence the diversification of activities), irrespective of the intensity of computer use, is positively correlated with students’ proficiency in all the three PISA domains in the vast majority of countries, indicating that computers breadth of use, as opposed to intensity of use in a given activity, has some positive effect on students’ performance.