Training courses for green space operators: EIMA Green Academy is born

A training project carried out by Comagarden in collaboration with specialized schools for gardeners and maintenance workers is presented in Milan. Some educational modules and an "educational tour", organized as part of the international EIMA Green exhibition (November 2020), complete a training course that offers more in-depth knowledge in the mechanical and technological field. The training's topic strengthens the interest around the Bologna exhibition, which continues its preparations at a record pace

The professions related to gardening, green space care, and the maintenance of outdoor areas and sports facilities have gained increasing importance in recent years. The national law 154 of 2016 defines the profiles of "gardener" and "green space maintenance technician" as the only ones qualified for the profession, and requires specific training courses that schools and training institutions recognized by the Regions already carry out with a high volume of participants. The main training centres already provide 600 hour and 180 hour courses for the role of gardener and maintenance technician to hundreds of operators partly coming from agricultural technical institutes, partly from internships in the field". The baggage required today for green space workers includes agronomic, botanical and environmental knowledge, but it must necessarily include specific skills regarding the use and maintenance of machines and equipment, as well as the use of advanced electronic devices for plant monitoring and processing control. The "EIMA Green Academy" project was launched to meet this growing need for technical mechanical skills, promoted by Comagargen (FederUnacoma) in collaboration with the Monza Park School and the Minoprio Agricultural School in Lombardy, and Emilia Romagna's "Dinamica" training institution. This is a training course - presented last November in Milan with a press conference - which integrates the subjects already present in the specialized schools with specific mechanization modules. Within the study plans, a precise amount of hours will be dedicated to the description of the mechanical fleet for gardening, to the demonstration tests, and to operator training. The path that the students and staff to be trained at the schools will be concluded by some seminars and an "educational tour" at EIMA Green, the international exhibition of gardening and green space care technologies that FederUnacoma organizes within the great EIMA International agricultural mechanics exhibition, which will be held in Bologna in November 2020. As was explained during the conference, those who have completed the courses at specialization schools and who have completed the course with EIMA training initiatives will receive the EIMA Green Academy diploma. Also, certificates of participation are provided for those who, without having completed the complete qualifying courses, intend to deepen the use of mechanical means by participating in seminars at the Exhibition. "The mechanical industry is able to produce increasingly refined and performing vehicles - said the President of Comagarden Renato Cifarelli during the conference - which, however, require ever more in-depth technical knowledge. The purpose of this project is to create a direct link between the green area professions and the world of mechanics". "The project is diverse and promises interesting future developments - added the Secretary of Comagarden Federica Tugnoli - because it includes the involvement of the manufacturers of mechanical vehicles. They are not only asked to provide machines and equipment for training in the field, but also to host students and technicians at their company for training courses on specific types of vehicles". "We are very happy to have launched a project that connects with the EIMA Green Exhibition - said the General Manager of FederUnacoma Simona Rapastella - because gardening is one of the sectors that most characterize the great EIMA exhibition, and because green space care constitutes an important laboratory to monitor the evolution of mechanics for multi-functional activities in urban and peri-urban settings”. "EIMA International is marching at a record pace - Rapastella concluded - and expects to reach a total of about 2,000 exhibiting industries, of which over 300 are in the EIMA Garden sector alone".