Pilot Data Sheet

Bureau Économique de la Province de Namur

Social Land Management model

Local partnership and roles

Coopérative Paysans Artisans

Cooperative of local producers and consumers
  • Co-production of the training programme
  • Co-production of the theoretical training elements in partnership with the FOREM, the Employers’ group and the Mission Wallonne des Secteurs Verts
  • Participation in the recruitment process with CPAS
  • Coaching
  • Acting as an interface between young people and producers of the employers’ group
  • Participant assessment process
  • Post-training follow-up
www.paysans-artisans.be

Office wallon de la formation professionnelle et de l’emploi

Walloon Public Service for Employment and Vocational Training
  • Reflection sessions regarding the training pathway and the co-production of theoretical training sessions with Paysans-Artisans and the Employers’ group
  • Certification of the training pathway

  • Participation in the assessment process of participants

  • Post-training follow-up
www.leforem.be

Mission Wallonne des Secteurs Verts

Representative of the social partners of the green sectors for Wallonia
  • Co-production of the theoretical training elements
secteursverts.be

Groupement d’employeurs Maraîchage Fruiticulture

  • Reception of young people into the training programme

  • Participation in the co-production of the theoretical training elements

CPAS Namur

Public Centre for Social Welfare
  • Participant recruitment

  • Providing financial support during the 6 months of employment contract

  • Participation in the participant assessment process
www.cpasnamur.eu

Bureau Économique de la Province de Namur

Intercommunal association for economic, social and environmental development in the province of Namur
  • Coordination of the pilot with Paysans-Artisans

  • Provision of land
  • Administrative and financial management
  • Evaluation of the model
www.bep.be

Participants recruitement

Process

The structure and purpose of the training programme has been explained in detail to the social workers of the different CPAS in Namur and its periphery. CPAS staff are in direct contact with young people. They know their personal circumstances and their aspirations as regards employment. They identify the young people they feel might most benefit from participation in IMAGINE, inform them about the training, via a leaflet, and refer them to Paysans-Artisans- and more specifically to a person with responsibility for acting as a personal support to the young people.

Group information sessions also take place in CPAS occasionally. They are organised by the Paysans-Artisans coach and are done in collaboration with the interested CPAS staff. The public is targeted by the social workers. This makes it possible to give general information about the training and to establish initial contact with the potential participants.


Following the referral by a social worker or after a group information session, an individual interview takes place in Paysans-Artisans premises with the coach in order to explain the training in detail. The coach discusses with future participants their motivations, their assets and their preferences regarding the training.

Conditions for participation
  • Motivation
  • Being in receipt of the RIS (living wage) through the CPAS
  • There are no minimum educational qualification requirements

Training Programme

The training
  • Has a focus on market gardening and fruit growing, with a predominance of one or the other professional pathway (depending on individual participant choice)
  • Concerns production, but also processing (vegetables, juices, jam, etc.) and sales in short food chain systems (farm sales, market sales, etc.)
  • Is done with several small producers working on small sites and across a great range of different seasonal vegetables and/or fruits, as cultivated by individual operators within the Employer’s group
  • Lasts a full year full time (38h/week), to participate in all stages of production (tillage, sowing, pruning, harvesting ...)
  • Takes place nine days out of ten on producers’ land, but also on land made available by the BEP as well as in processing or sales areas
  • Includes one day out of ten devoted to training, meetings, and in reflecting upon what has been learned. These days are co-produced and co-delivered with market gardeners and fruit growers on the one hand, and the Mission Wallonne des Secteurs Verts and the FOREM Green Sectors Competence Centre on the other
  • Allows the young trainee to benefit from a real income, at least for 12 months
Coaching and assessment

Coaching during the training programme or at the time of entering employment is undertaken by a coach from Paysans-Artisans specially assigned to provide personal support to individual participants. This person follows the young people on a daily basis and is the intermediary between the young people and the producers within the Employers’ group.


In addition, the young people has access to specific support on "mobility" aspects : a mobility plan for each participant is produced, it relates to the various training locations (at the producers’ premises) and to the purchase and provision of folding bicycles (to be combined with public transport) and electric bicycles.

Every two months, Paysans-Artisans, in collaboration with the social workers of the CPAS and the FOREM, undertake individual assessments with participants sessions during which, the young people, the coaches and the social workers from CPAS, share thoughts and feelings about progress, and can give their points of view on the training and what they want to improve – on occasion with the additional input of employers’ group members.

Co-production

The model is co-produced with all the local partners as shown on Page 4 and the co-production is now implemented in the training with the participants as well :

  • During individual recruitment interviews where conversations between young people, social workers from CPAS and coaches from Paysans-Artisans, the focus is on the young person and their expectations, both in terms of acquired skills and personal development
  • During evaluation sessions as a part of which the young people, the coaches and the social workers from CPAS, share thoughts and feelings about progress, and can give their points of view on the training and what they want to improve – on occasion with the additional input of employers’ group members
  • During the co-production process of the individual learning programmes to be followed off-site, where the young people are involved alongside the trainers from FOREM (Green Sectors Competence Centre) and the Mission Wallonne des Secteurs Verts, together with representatives of the employers with whom they spend time on-site

Post-training opportunities

Young people will have the opportunity to move on from the CPAS service offer :

  • Via an employment contract with the employers’ group itself or with a contract of employment with an individual producer within that group
  • Via an employment contract elsewhere, with another producer or another employer
  • By the creation of a specific job role that involves cultivating on a market gardening test area on land made available by the BEP
  • By pursuing further specialist training, in particular to become an entrepreneur
  • By spending time, for a limited time only (via a particular legal provision),within cooperatives with a social purpose, such as Paysans-Artisans, the vegetable factory or the jar factory of the Fabrique Circuit Court

In addition, the certification of training (CICAF certification awarded by FOREM) gives an advantage in entering employment. Financial support by the Mission Wallonne des Secteurs Verts is also made available to employers who hire participants post training.

Funding and expenditure

Expenses are mainly related to
  • Preparation, piloting and 
supervision of the project
  • Supervision of young people and managing relations with different partners
  • Administrative and 
financial management of the project
  • Supply of equipment
  • Operating costs
  • Staff costs
  • Salary costs of participants
Funding sources are
  • Co-funding by Interreg NWE and the Walloon region
  • BEP own resources