From seed to plate: between market gardening and employment
As part of the IMAGINE project, the Lycée Technique Agricole is working on the development of the entire agricultural production chain in order to assess, on the one hand, the economic possibilities for a local short-circuit market gardening which has almost disappeared in Luxembourg and on the other hand to create jobs for young people, from the cultivation of seeds to the processing and canning of market gardening products.
This global view makes it possible to generate constant work throughout the year, and to promote the employability of young people. The particularity of the IMAGINE project is the co-production and complementarity between the various organisations working in the field with young people for their integration: the Lycée Technique Agricole (LTA), the Employment Development Agency (ADEM), the Socio-professional orientation center (COSP) and the Forum pour l'Emploi (FPE).
Centre d’orientation socio-professionnel pour les jeunes
The COSP, which is based in Lintgen, has the particularity of enabling the valorisation, stabilisation, skills development and guidance of disadvantaged and disabled young people.
The aim is for young people to better understand their skills and their limits in order to be able to find a professional orientation that suits them through 8 workshops - Painting, Hygiene, Mechanics, Gardening, Multipurpose, Metal, Binding, Administrative and Logistics.
Each young people who joins the COSP follows an eight-week technical and social training course and has individual socio-educational monitoring and overall medical monitoring.
With the IMAGINE program, young people notably implemented a raised garden bed project, using skills in gardening / market gardening, carpentry, and hygiene. Theoretical training was also provided on technical vocabulary in 5 languages: Luxembourgish, French, German, English and Portuguese.
Development of professional know-how through market gardening
The Forum pour l’emploi allows young people to benefit from a five-month fixed-term contract, renewable according to the trainees' needs. Through its service am Gaertchen, the Forum pour l'emploi developed a technical training area in market gardening with two production sites where organic fruit and vegetables as well as flowers and plants without pesticides are grown all year round and intended for direct sale to consumers.
Young people are also accompanied by advisers, in particular about issues related to the professional environment, their orientation path, their professional perspectives, and their job searching. At the end of their contract, young people have the opportunity to pursue a one-time apprenticeship at the Lycée Technique Agricole to obtain a degree.
Meeting with young people and testimonies
The meeting with young people started with the fruit of the earth, indeed it was by offering us freshly harvested strawberries that the group of young people welcomed us to the land. Among these young people, we met João, originally from Portugal who joined the IMAGINE training a few months ago. His purpose is to pursue an apprenticeship in market gardening. We will come back to his experience soon...
