FIT4BLUE – Fishing Tourism for Blue Economy is a ERASMUS + funded project lead by Petra Patrimonia Corsica in consortium with other partners from Spain (SGS Tecnos and FUNDAMAR), Italy (M.A.R.E. SOC. COOP and Haliéus), Greece (IDEC) that aims to foster entrepreneurship in the field of fisheries & aquaculture as well as to enhance youth participation in the Blue Economy.

The main objective of the project is to provide mentors/trainers and adult training organisations, effective training programs in order to enhance the entrepreneurial spirit of adult learners and develop new entrepreneurial initiative in the maritime sectors.

In order to facilitate the learning and personalization of training courses, FIT4BLUE foresees the development of an open EU online platform through which users (mentors and adults/workers linked with coastal economy) can benefit from learning in an autonomous way.

In response to these, the consortium of FIT4BLUE will to develop 3 Intellectual Ouputs:

O1. E-course for adult trainers/mentor

The partners will develop training materials and an e-course for mentors to support young adults in developing new enterprises in the maritime sector, as well as to support fishermen, shellfish farmers for diversification in their activities and to preserve coastal cultural heritage and “know-how”.

IO2 E-course for young adults/fishers

The e-course and the tools produced will target young adults and fishers and will propose new and innovative educational paths of entrepreneurship in the Blue Economy. The course will use an integrated approach and will be based on EnterComp in order to provide customized training.

 IO3. Open access web platform & Benchmarking study

The partners will develop an open EU online platform through which users can benefit from learning in an autonomous way. The platform will present also a benchmarking study of new processes and marketing techniques mainly focused on fishing tourism and aquaculture as a new source of income for fishers.

Benchmark Study on Fishing Tourism

For the scope of the FIT4BlUE project, we include in “Fishing tourism” all the activities aimed at spreading the value of the knowledge, cultural heritage and products related to job and traditions of professional fishing and aquaculture, as well as valorizing the sites where these activities take place.

Petra Patrimonia Corsica (PPC)

PPC is a cooperative created in 2013 to promote and assist entrepreneurship and to contribute to territorial cohesion having branche offices both in Regions designed as “less developed” (Corsica, Guadeloupe, Guyanne) and in Regions designed as “more developed” (PACA).

PPC is also recongnised as training center; it developps innovant training materials and provides a wide range business support to people (also unemployed) willing to create an economic activity and willing to explore opportunities related to sustainable development as well as to emerging market sectors.

PPC is divided in 4 main departments:

* Maritima aiming to the valorization, conservation and revitalization of maritime heritage, such as assisting fishermen developing complementary activities and to support and accompany maritime & marine project holders (entrepreneurs) in diversifying their traditional activities, notably pescatourism.

* Petrafolia aiming to promote innovation in the agriculture sector

* Petra Patrimonia aiming to the valorization, conservation and revitalization of heritage, landscape and environment

* Petra Patrimonia Jeunesse aiming to provide opportunities for youth to be involved in the management of cooperatives.

Fundación para la pesca y marisqueo (FUNDAMAR)

FUNDAMAR which was founded in 2010, is the first organization in the fisheries sector accounting for an equal representation of employers organizations and trade unions in their governance and control bodies. Comprises the employers’ organization, Shipowners Cooperative of the Port of Vigo (ARVI), and the following trade unions: UGT (Federation of Transport, Communications and Sea of the General Union of Workers, UGT Galicia) and CCOO (Federation of Services for Citizenship of CCOO, FSC-CCOO, Galicia), which represent the majority of the fishing sector at social and economic level in Galicia, where the fishing industry remains one of the first agents of the economy, representing approximately 52% of the total employment in the fishing sector in Spain, and 10% in the European Union.

As regards to fishing & maritime tourism since several years, FUNDAMAR has been involved in different kinds of project to promote the sector to preserve coastal cultural heritage, fishermen’s “know-how” and its competitiveness and excellence. Also has been developing in specific projects aimed to professionals of the sector, improve their knowledge, their work conditions, their professionalization.

Since 2010, FUNDAMAR primary mission is to combine efforts and resources towards the promotion and development of HSE (health and safety of work), Gender Equallity, Environment and Social Economy  in the fishing sector, as evidenced by the various projects carried out so far.

SGS TECNOS

SGS TECNOS is a leader in certification and regulation. It´s also a renowned training company with long experience in vocational and adult training. They work to achieve an improvement in working conditions for employees and environmental conditions.

Since 2005, SGS has a specific department to carry out numerous National and International projects in all activities and sectors, as coordinators as well as a partner. In these projects, SGS has different roles (coordination, pedagogical reviewing, ICT Projects, R&D&i Projects, HSE (health and safety of work), environment, vocational training, etc. .

SGS was the partner and coordinator in several calls of TOI Leonardo da Vinci (Call 2011 and 2012) and has coordinated 6 KA2 Erasmus+ projects. The Innovation Projects Department of SGS has worked in other European calls such the LIFE programme, AAL Projects (Active and Assisted Living European Programme), European Neighborhood Instrument (ENI CBC MED) EIT HEALTH or Horizon 2020

SGS has a long experience in training in the maritime sector since they have developed several projects at national and European level with partners such the Vigo Ship-owners cooperative (ARVI – Spain), the Maritime institute of prevention (France), the Association of National Organizations of Fishing Enterprises in the European Union (EUROPECHE – Brussels), the research center for technology innovation in fishery and aquaculture ( MARE – Italy), and the Spanish Association of Aquaculture enterprises (APROMAR)

SGS has brought its experience in training towards public funded projects with the aim to improve the safety at work, health, work quality and implementation of ITC, all of this applied to the maritime sector.

IDEC S.A.

IDEC is a training consulting company located in Piraeus, Greece. Its activities consist of training, management consulting, quality assurance, evaluation and development of ICT solutions for both private and public sector. Clients of IDEC are both SMEs and the bigger Greek companies of a wide variety of sectors. It co-operates with more than 600 institutes all through Europe and with about 300 experts on specific fields.

The main areas of expertise are: training, management consulting, business plans, entrepreneurship, SMEs, environmental management, energy efficiency, quality management, certification, design of training contents based on ECVET, software and multimedia development, internet applications and distance learning.

HALIEUS

HALIEUS was founded in 2005 under the initiative of the fishery cooperatives of Legacoop (the oldest Italian association of cooperatives) in order to promote the economic, social and cultural development of communities active in fishery and aquaculture inside and outside Europe, by valorizing the positive experiences of the Italian cooperatives.

Along the years Haliéus has implemented several international cooperation projects in the fields of fishery, aquaculture, resource management and cooperative enterprise organizations, working in Europe as well as in third Countries (among others Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Western Africa, Dominican republic, etc) through project mainly co-funded by the European Union in the framework of Programmes such as ENPI CBC Med, InterregMed, IPA Civil Society Dialogue, IPA Human Resource Development (Turkey), SRSS, etc.

In all the projects of Haliéus, the capacity building and the enhancement of structured system of trainings for the fishery and aquaculture operators have played a major role, siding the other activities for ensuring a local ownership and long-term sustainability.

In its first year of activities, Haliéus has mainly worked on rural cooperatives and resource management, with a wide experience on fishery and aquaculture cooperatives and water

management. Currently Haliéus is supporting the cooperatives in all the economic sectors on which they are active.

M.A.R.E. SOC. COOP. A R.L.

M.A.R.E. carries out research in environmental, fisheries and socio-economic fields on behalf of the European Union, Ministries, Regions, public and private scientific institutions, cooperatives and associations.

*Fishery M.A.R.E. has gained extensive experience in the monitoring of benthic and pelagic resources and in the management of resources related to some types of fisheries (hydraulic dredge, trawling, midwater pair trawls and fixed gears). He has carried out studies on recreational and sport fisheries in both fresh and sea waters. For what concern the sea water, in particular, M.A.R.E. collects data on bluefin tuna and large pelagic species. M.A.R.E. also deals with sanitation problems related to fish and shellfish. Besides taking care of the data collection and processing on all the most common species caught in Adriatic Sea (pelagic and benthic species) and creating reports and management plans. M.A.R.E. supports fishing enterprises by providing assistance in the creation of management plans for small-scale fisheries or clam fisheries, assistance for the start of fishing-tourism activities,

research for European funding for innovation

*Aquaculture M.A.R.E. carries out research and test on technologies, especially in shellfish farms field (mussels, clams, oysters), providing technical assistance to individual companies and associations through: feasibility studies, assistance for the start of fishing-tourism activities, research funding, state concessions request, design of mussel farms. M.A.R.E. has also carried out conformity assessments on mussel farms facilities, damage assessment of the facilities after storms, monitoring of environmental parameters and the sanitary classification of production areas. It has also carried out research and experimentation activities aimed to the diversification of production (breeding tests on flat and cupped oyster, hairy mussel, scallops, etc.). Furthermore M.A.R.E. have developed and tested some production systems of sea bream in offshore fish farm. Currently, M.A.R.E. is researching in new techniques for a shellfishing more efficient and sustainable with the environment

*Environment M.A.R.E. made studies on the marine and coastal environments. The skills acquired in the context of biology, geology, intersecting with other disciplines of socio-economic nature, have allowed it to participate in large-scale projects, such as ICZM – Integrated Management of Coastal Zones, carried out by the Emilia-Romagna for which it has been necessary also analyzes the environmental context. Environment M.A.R.E. made studies on the marine and coastal environments. The skills acquired in the context of biology, geology, intersecting with other disciplines of socio-economic nature, have allowed it to participate in large-scale projects, such as ICZM – Integrated Management of Coastal Zones, carried out by the Emilia-Romagna for which it has been necessary also analyzes the environmental context. Education and Dissemination

M.A.R.E. cooperative provides education and divulgation through:

• Teaching and educational supervision

• Organization of courses, seminars and conferences linked to the maritime sector

• Training courses

• Production of informative materials