For a week beginning the 25th of September 2023, Teagasc welcomed nineteen visitors from sixteen different Norwegian vocational education colleges. The group from green (land based) and blue (aquaculture) colleges were hosted by Kildalton College and the Curriculum Development and Standards Unit in a job shadowing exercise funded by the Erasmus programme and the staff mobility programme. The week-long visit emerged from linkages established through Teagasc’s involvement in Europea International. Kildalton staff and students kindly facilitated the group to observe practical and classes training sessions, with both the Norwegian visitors and the Teagasc hosts learning a lot through question and answer sessions. Staff at Teagasc Ballyhaise College also facilitated a zoom call with the forestry teachers in the group to outline the Teagasc forestry education programme. And the Norwegian group also visited Kilkenny dairy farmer Bryan Daniels, who is a Teagasc host farmer for student placements and is putting in practice a number of sustainability initiatives.
Pic 1: The group of Norwegians teachers including Tone Olavsdotter Mosebø and Stefan Preisig (organisers) with Teagasc staff Frank Murphy, James Maher & Carmel Finlay
Pic 2: Kilkenny Farmer Bryan Daniels demonstrates technology used on his farm to measure and manage grass yields.
(Text and pics compiled by James Maher & Carmel Finlay)
