Adults'Education and Agricultural Innovation: A Social Learning Approach

Social learning processes can be the basis of a method of agricultural innovation that involves expert and empirical knowledge. In this sense, the objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness and sustainability of an innovation process, understood as social learning, in a group of small farmers in the southern highlands of Peru. Innovative proposals and its permanence three years after the process finished were evaluated. It was observed that innovation processes generated are maintained over time; however, new innovations are not subsequently generated. We conclude that adult learning processes and innovation based on social learning are more effective and sustainable; however, the farmers internalization in innovation processes is given longer term

Proyectos innovadores de formación universitaria para adultos con experiencia. Algunos casos en América latina

La educación en alternancia, muy difundida en niveles no universitarios, tiene sólo unas décadas de vida en las universidades de Europa y Norteamérica. Desde 2001, varias instituciones que demandaban una educación superior para sus profesores rurales de secundaria, promueven proyectos de formación universitaria en diversos países latinoamericanos. Los resultados son muy satisfactorios. Por un lado, la Universidad trabaja en partenariado con otros actores en una colaboración poco frecuente en el ámbito académico. Por otro, se realizan innovaciones educativas que permiten a los estudiantes–adultos con experiencia– transformar problemas de acción en proyectos de investigación. Esta ponencia se centra sólo en algunos aspectos de las experiencias: la cooperativa de producción de saber entre estudiantes y profesores; el estudiante, que pasa de ser “actor” a “investigador-autor”, como centro del sistema; y la ruptura transdisciplinar de los rígidos paradigmas clásicos universitarios mediante la puesta en marcha de una verdadera formación-accióninvestigación. Estos logros requieren un cambio cultural y competencial del profesor universitario, así como una ingeniería pedagógica compleja. Algunos cambios observados en las actitudes personales y profesionales de estudiantes y profesores, permiten proponer la alternancia como una alternativa sistémica de formacióndesarrollo cercana a los postulados de Bolonia, frente a los enfoques universitarios tipo transmisivo

Leader Rural Development Program in Spain: Profile and Functions of Workers in Local Action Groups.

Occupations in the labor market are linked with to a minimum basic training and other capacities. Hired workers should be able to accomplish required functions related to their specific job. Regarding the rural development labor market, local action groups? workers have defined performance areas?projects, strategy, organization and training & market?but specific functions within each of these areas are not as clearly defined. Neither both, basic training and capacities needed to perform each job profile within the local action group are defined. This communication analyses training and other capacities linked to each of the job profiles within the local action group. Functions within each of the performance areas previously defined are also analyzed regarding the job profiles

Traceability of Intra- and Interpersonal Skills: From Education to Labor Market

Both educators and employers agree there is a growing gap between competences that labor market expects from its new employees and skills they own. Literature review holds that a set of nontechnical, professional abilities and intra- and interpersonal attitudes are required to close this gap and indicates that more training of soft skills is needed to access employment and success in work life. Although these skills are theoretically included in educational stages, project management approach can be incorporated to improve students and new employees’ practical curricula. The methodology consists of the critical review of the competency frameworks established by the DeSeCo and Tuning projects, confronting them against the requirements currently demanded by labor market, based on the reports of Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG, to detect inconsistencies between educational and professional stages and check if project management standards, by PMI and IPMA, cover them. Compiling these weaknesses, actions can be established aimed at solving them, based on project management proposals. The incorporation of project management concepts into educational stages, especially the vision by competences, contributes to improve the employability by highlighting those transverse but essential skills that lead to versatile and successful professionals. To achieve this, it is necessary to care for human competences

Are local action groups, under LEADER approach, a good way to support resilience in rural areas?

The LEADER approach is a tool of governance in rural areas in Spain since its launch as a Community initiative, more than two decades ago. Its contribution to the development of rural areas, and their adaptation to the changes that have occurred in the last twenty years, are decisive. For local action groups (LAGs), the existence of networks that grouped them, is essential for the development of the methodology, the transmission of information and the relationship with governments, at regional, national and European level. Both, LAGs and networks can play an important role to analyze the effects of the economic crisis in rural areas and the capacity of resilience. This paper analyzes the role of LAGs and the existing rural development networks in Spain, their functioning, how LAGs adapt themselves to the crisis, how they are supported by the mentioned networks, and how they can contribute to the resilience in rural areas

Evaluation of Development Projects: a Process-Centered Approach in the Outskirts of Lima, Peru.

Development cooperation projects work with people involved in processes of change and social transformation. While the main objective of the intervention is the development process itself, the project?s quality will be determined by the way of implementing it. Its success lies in the sustainability of the generated processes and the connection with them by the involved actors. The evaluation analyses both aspects. This article examines the evaluation, under a process approach, of a project on urban agriculture in Lima (Peru). The results show that the use of this approach, which combines different evaluation tools, allows the identification and analysis of the processes with the involved members, providing a better understanding of the real sustainability of the results

Understading the food security governance in Latin America. Analysis to strengthen planning and cooperation

2015 was the year agreed to measure the accomplishment of the global goals related to hunger. According to international data, Latin America - LA achieved these goals. This result could be explained, in part, by regulatory development to address food insecurity. Although the regional results, as a whole, are positive; there are some differences at the national level. The reasons why some countries did not take the same way as others, in spite of having strengthened its legal and institutional frameworks, must be a call for reflection. The aim of this research is to understand the governance models that promoted the food security laws in LA, to facilitate project?s design and its implementation. Analyzing the institutional behavior during the public policy cycle, 3 models were differed: first, civil society presents high organization and governmental actors share responsibility in prioritization and development of initiatives; second, government actors seek to assume most responsibilities creating new spaces of joint work at different territorial levels; and third, governmental actors feels capable of assuming most responsibilities using the traditional government structure

Compensation of biased excitation effects for MLS-based nonlinear systems' identification

MLS-based identification of nonlinear systems is largely affected by deviations in the excitation signal amenable to the combined effect of DC-offset and an arbitrary gain. These induce orthogonality loss in the MLS filter bank output, thus invalidating the underlying identification construction. In this paper we present a correction algorithm to derive the corrected Volterra kernels from the biased estimations provided by the standard MLS-based procedure

Una propuesta de desarrollo regional: asociaciones a través de proyectos conjuntos de cooperación

En Perú se han desplegado diferentes intentos de modelos de regionalización, habiendo partido desde una simple demarcación territorial, sin identificación de competencias que configuren territorios autogestionarios. Subyacente a este modelo, se han identificado claras deficiencias de competencias institucionales conducentes a un modelo sustentable de desarrollo. Además de las deficiencias mencionadas, no se han reflejado intenciones de articular fortalezas-competencias entre regiones, que permitan a través de sinergias, promover programas y proyectos de cooperación al desarrollo. La propuesta a abordar, apunta de reunir pueblos-mancomunidades, bajo una visión de complementación de competencias, a través de la cual desarrollar proyectos colaborativos que permitan explotar los recursos de dichas mancomunidades con ventajas competitivas propias. La propuesta en mención parte de identificación de fortalezas y debilidades sobre poblados en Perú, con una visión de complementariedad, la cual permita configurar un conjunto de fortalezas sobre las cuales desarrollar proyectos conducentes a un desarrollo sustentable

Educational Needs and Future Prospects in the Field of Health and Safety at Work in Spain

Aiming to identify educational needs to promote employment in the field of Occupational Health and Safety in Spain, this paper analyses the matching degree between the existing university educational offer and the professional demand. Results indicate that the new official Masters are well driven but, at graduate level, a broad range of topics regarding occupational hazards should be promoted and the scope of cross subjects should be expanded. New profiles that are emerging within this field are also identified