Good practice:

Digital Agri: Master degree in Digital Transformation in Agrifood and Forestry

The Master in Digital Transformation in the agri-food sector - "DigitalAgri" – has the objective of leading a specific offer of postgraduate specialization in new digital technologies applied to the agrifood sector. It responds to the real demand of professionals with these skills, both in the private sector and in the public. It is intended to train professionals to facilitate, support and promote digital transformation in rural areas. The learning process is driven by ETSIAM. Also, teachers from the Computer Engineering Faculty of the University of Málaga (Spain), as well as technicians from private companies are involved. Companies, on the other hand, both participate in classroom teaching and present real life applications of the skills, tools and knowledge learned in the classroom.

ETSIAM, the Higher Technical School of Agricultural Engineering in the University of Córdoba (Spain), has led research and innovation in the agri-food sector for more than 50 years, with strong ties in public and private sectors via numerous R&D projects. As a result, DigitalAgri has been designed to respond to agricultural related demand by providing, mainly agronomical engineers, with digitalization skills. It is an official postgraduate university training initiative of a public university, but it is born in alliance with companies, involving them in the training process, training professionals to respond to the demands of companies.

Annual budget: 40.000€ to cover the costs of the Master. It includes:
-Payment to external teaching staff
-Communication costs: Website design and maintenance, social media positioning, audio-visual media production
-Scholarship support for students
-Purchase of material (sensors etc)

24 students in its first edition; 6 companies involved.
The sensation transmitted by the students is an authentic change in their training, an increase in their abilities that may enhance their future employability.

•Significant effort among students with non-computer qualifications to follow the Master. A 0 course is proposed to facilitate knowledge leveling.
•Heavy workload for students: important academic coordination is needed to structure personal work and deliveries in orderly and non-overwhelming way.

The classes taught by technicians of the companies involved make the training set aimed at solving real problems and a pragmatic approach to future challenges.