Global demand for cosmetics and wellness products is increasing, leading to strong growth in the production of aromatic plants on a global scale. Over the past decade, lavender production has doubled, to about 65 tons a year. Between 2011 and 2019, the imports of essential oils increased by almost 68% in terms and 22% in terms of volume of value in EU. In global competition, the maintenance and competitiveness of the European aromatic plant production and processing sector requires strengthening of quality approaches, and in particular towards organic and natural labels which meet the growing demands of consumers, contribute to the preservation of the environment, and are more profitable for producers. It is therefore essential to support the training of European professionals in the cultivation and transformation of aromatic plants towards quality organic production.Vocational training for AP producers must adapt to the constraints of a poorly available and dispersed public, which calls for an online training offer. This requirement for a quality online training offer is reinforced in the context of COVID which limits the possibilities of group and face-to-face training. The characteristics of agricultural training, which relies heavily on the acquisition of practical training in the field and transmission by peers, requires structuring an adapted and quality digital offer.Based on all these needs, EcoOils emerged to offer a european innovative vocational training process to support the creation of distance training system in the field of agricultural vocational training, which takes into account recent contributions from educational sciences and technological developments. The training itself will be focused on building the competences of the target group through an online, blended and distance learning that is tailored-made & designed specifically to meet their needs. It will also aim to build and expand the pedagogical skills of the trainers in the agricultural sector, enabling them to deliver high quality inclusive digital education.The thematic focus field of EcoOils will be the organic aromatic plants cultivation and organic essential oils production in Europe, the integration into a common digital curriculum covering all aspects of development of organic farming and distillation of OAP: farming techniques, production methods, marketing, communication, ethics & corporate social responsibility. It is a question of considering OAP cultivation and OEO production not only from a technical point of view, but also in all aspects of the producer's relationship with its customers & territory. And it is also a question of changing the mind-set of the professionals on the immense opportunities that digital & online education provides for them.However, no training course exists either in France, or in any of the partners’ countries that tackles all these problems and needs of the aromatic plants cultivators, essential oils producers and new comers with regard to transition to/start of organic production process and marketing of the ready products.EcoOils is based on the complementary skills and experience of 6 European partners in 5 countries (Bg, Fr, Gr, It, Sp): 3 VET organizations, one of which is also an incubator specialized in hosting new agricultural enterprises, 1 local development agency, 1 specialist in training engineering, 1 environmental association. This complementarity makes it possible to cover the needs of professional targets, the thematic content and the educational skills necessary for the development of quality digital media.The specific aims of EcoOils are:- Meet the needs of farmers and distilleries for building their competences to enroll in online, blended and distance learning, tailored-made & designed to meet their needs.- Build and expand the pedagogical competences of the trainers & consultants in the agricultural sector enabling them to deliver high quality inclusive digital education.- Develop high quality digital content incl. innovative online resources dedicated to farming and production of organic essential oils for professionals and future professionals, complementary of the training contents from agricultural and agronomic education.- Support all agents in the essential oils sector (incl. farmers, distillers, educators & trainers) to engage in distant & online training process that could substitute the currently used presence-based courses.- Support farmers and distilleries to enter the market of OEO & encourage the application of organic farming and production approaches.- Facilitate cooperation and technical transfers among European countries and European stakeholders.The target groups are:- Cultivators of AP (especially lavender & lavendin, rose, sage ...) interested in conversion to organic production- Distilleries & essential oils producers- Trainers & coaches of agricultural producers in AP&EO sector- New entrepreneurs entering AP/OE production

In the Mediterranean area there are plenty of small-scale farms due to the land distribution by legacy and to geographical aspects characterized by mountainous areas. Many entrepreneurs have seen medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs), known as well as herbs, as an alternative crop to be implemented in these areas where traditional ones (cereal, vineyard, olive trees…) have no place because they are not profitable. Also people escaping from urban areas due the economic crisis see an opportunity in this.But then they face to the reality: the small productions are not enough to bulk-selling to wholesalers, and decide to elaborate products made of herbs to sell directly to consumer. So they have to deal with different aspects (processing, safety aspects, norms and procedures, marketing, etc.) that go far beyond those simply producing herbs (cultivating and raw material transformation). Even more, most of them have not the capacity to invest in expensive industrial equipments, so they focus in producing in a high quality and traditional way, becoming herbal craftsmen.But there no exists specific legal regulation for this profession, so no specialised training is addressed for this craftsmanship.The main objective of HERBARTIS project is to achieve the professional development of adult learners by developing useful tools and methods, improving the offer of high quality learning opportunities, and validating the non-formal learning and career guidance. For this reason its specific objective is to provide educators with all the competences and skills needed to deliver high quality services and to develop training tools addressed to adult learners from the primary agricultural production to achieve professional skills’ recognition of craft processing of aromatic and medicinal plants for obtaining high quality products.A partnership of different Mediterranean organisations dealing with education, research, rural development and business assessment within the medicinal and aromatic plants’ production, industrial processing, quality and marketing will work together with this aim: Centre Tecnològic Forestal de Catalunya and Institut de Recerca i Tecnologies Agroalimentàries (Spain), Université Européenne des Senteurs & Saveurs (France), Associação para o Desenvolvimento do Concelho de Moura (Portugal), Associazione Terre dei Savoia and Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricultura e l'Analisi dell'Economia Agraria (Italy).To reach the objectives the methodology is based in knowing deeply the herbs craft’s production sector needs, the existing training, designing a new curricula and the syllabus of a blended course (virtual/face-to-face), developing a high quality learning material according to technical and legal requirements and implementing a useful, practical and reachable training to adult learners using ICT tools and transnational mobilities, to enhance the peer-learning and the contact with existing businesses.So, 4 blended courses on herbal craft’s production will be implemented, one per country. Each course will have an on-line course, face-to-face practical workshops and virtual networking activities. These courses will be complemented with transnational training activities (one per country) where a technical seminar, networking workshops and professional visits to sector’s companies will take place. 4 intellectual outputs are previewed:- Guidelines of training methodologies and policy recommendations for qualification recognition of herbal craft’s production (book and reports).- E-learning platform on herbal craft’s production (Moodle).- Syllabus of a blended course on herbal craft’s production (brochure)- Training materials on herbal craft’s production (course texts, training videos, seminars’ proceedings, herbal companies’ reports, networking conclusions).This project will allow participating partners’ staff improving their teaching skills on MAPs processing and find a common workspace to strengthen their collaboration, enhancing the knowledge chain, technology transfer and networking with MAPs sector stakeholders. Adult learners participating in blended courses will have the opportunity to improve multilingualism, technical, digital and social skills, and to interact with other learners and realities in the blended transnational mobilities. Other MAPs sector stakeholders (producers, craftsmen, entrepreneurs, companies, students) and education providers will be able to access to open educational resources that will improve their knowledge and training opportunities. Finally, the guidelines provided by the project will be useful to influence education, agriculture, industry and business' decision makers about the sector requirements and training needs, and strengthen the network with MAPs sector stakeholders and professional associations from other countries, in order to address to similar problems and jointly find solutions and driving specifications proposals to policy makers.

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