Re/Upskilling The Agricultural Labour Force: Micro-Credentials As Innovative LLL Strategy

Industry 4.0 had a strong impact on globalization by changing the workforce and increasing access to new skills and knowledge. According to the World Economic Forum, by 2025, 50% of all employees will need reskilling due to new technology. Industry 5.0 addresses long term prospects such as sustainability, resilience and human-centricity regarding efficiency and productivity. Agriculture is the most exposed economic sector to climate change with cascade effects on agro ecosystems. Innovations in the agricultural sector are inevitable to ensure food security and social and environmental sustainability. This paper presents two Erasmus+ projects that highlight the importance of future engineering education in the agricultural sector considering change drivers and challenges (e.g., climate change, labour market needs, digitalization, pedagogical approaches, micro-credentials). The goal is to provide holistic competence-based education that helps learners develop sustainability skills for responsible action. Therefore, we combine innovative pedagogic approaches with substantial content, to allow up/reskilling in a short period of time. We consider opportunities and limitations and how comprehensive agricultural engineering courses must be designed to be effective. We present innovative learning approaches in the realm of agricultural engineering and evaluate the efficiency of short courses (6 ECTS), micro credentials. Analysing the experiences of several courses conducted at different European universities in past years, we can conclude that if the right pedagogic methods are paired with substantial content, up/reskilling is possible in a short period of time (6 ECTS). Main beneficiaries are agricultural professionals, who are interested in innovative, remote learning opportunities.