Abstract:

BTSF is a European Commission initiative to improve the knowledge and implementation of EU rules covering food and feed law, animal health and welfare, as well as rules on plant health and plant protection products. BTSF is designed for staff of competent authorities in Member States, Candidate and selected non-EU Countries involved in official controls.

Since 2007, the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (IZS - Teramo), has been provider of the EU Commission for the organisation of 479 BTSF training sessions (face-to-face, eLearning and videoconference) in favour of 25,368 participants on different subject matters.

Among them, 78 courses on animal welfare have been designed and delivered. They involved 188 tutors of 27 countries and 3,428 participants of 84 countries.

Adopting a circular approach, the courses were progressively organised as Face to Face (F2F) events in 14 countries, redesigned as virtual conferences (VC) during the Sars-Cov-2 pandemics to avoid dramatic interruptions in capacity building, and back to F2F in November 2023, to conclude the last of the 6 EU funded projects.

At the beginning of this 16-year experience, training was set mainly top-down, as a conference for a large audience. Over time, the methodological approach has been continuously improved to the point of defining 8 multidimensional training packages customised according to the specific EU Commission learning goals and contractual terms, target group profiles, and risk-based-thinking principles. In this successful model, the learning process starts before the event, when beneficiaries are invited to express individual learning needs, study relevant literature and prepare a presentation to share their professional experiences related to the course topic. Training officially begins with a short plenary session focusing on the EU legislation and good practices adopted by Member States for ensuring full compliance to it, and then move towards: ice-breaker exercises based on the OPERA method; group discussions to exchange perspectives; storytelling sessions giving voice to participants in a peer-to-peer environment; group activities on specific case studies. The package is also made of in-field simulation exercises, commonly recognised as very effective to improve the necessary skills for conducting veterinary inspections on animal welfare. In case of biosecurity risks on farm and during the COVID-19 crisis, the latter have been replaced by table-top documentary checks, primarily based on pedagogical videos structured in a way that fully reproduce the actual scenarios. A thematic workshop always closes the learning pathway, offering room to meet relevant stakeholders, learn about their activities and talk to them about priority issues.

Even if the IZS – Teramo coordination of BTSF projects is over for the moment, the exchange of knowledge, good and best practices and cascade training promoted, together with solid relationships and fruitful dialogue built among the interested parties, assure that the effects of this unique experience would continue over years in a stable community of practice. This model has been already transferred to other learning contexts, such as: the WOAH Collaborating Centre for veterinary training and capacity building assigned to the IZS – Teramo, the EURCAW Ruminants & Equines and the European Partnership on Animal Health and Welfare, where the Institute is playing a leading role for adult training.

Keywords:

Scalable training, training packages, adult learning, knowledge management, animal welfare, cascade training.