Educators, industrial leaders, researchers, and policymakers from over 20 countries gathered at Bournemouth University on 23-24 January for the “Symposium on Sustainable Development in Business Education Programmes”, a key international event for innovation in sustainability training. The symposium, chaired by Professor Walter Leal from Hamburg University of Applied Sciences and Professor Marcjanna Augustyn from Bournemouth University, welcomed delegates from the United States, Canada, India, and numerous European and non-European countries, aiming to explore innovative approaches for preparing future business leaders to tackle 21st-century sustainability challenges.
During the event, Erina Guraziu presented a study conducted within the European project ACE-EX (Agriculture Circular Economy-Expert), an initiative involving 20 organizations from 9 European countries, including universities, higher technical institutes, research centers, and trade associations. The research develops a new professional profile: the circular economy expert in agriculture. Using a mixed methodology combining qualitative and quantitative analysis, the study engaged 146 sector professionals with an average of 13 years of experience. It played a crucial role in identifying necessary skills and designing the corresponding training program, which will be delivered at EQF levels 4 and 5.
The survey revealed significant training gaps: of the 41 programs analyzed across seven European countries (Italy, Spain, Greece, Czech Republic, Norway, Poland, and Ukraine), only 29% address energy efficiency, and 26% cover new business models. “The most advanced companies in circular economy integrate sustainability across all operational aspects,” Guraziu explained, “but we’ve identified critical shortfalls in cross-cutting skills like innovation management, project management, lifecycle assessment, and systems thinking.”
The study highlighted teamwork as the most requested competence (97%), followed by problem-solving (83%) and planning (76%). 61% of companies operate at the national level, with distribution across oil (42%), wine (33%), and cereal (19%) sectors. The research also analyzed 18 best practices and revealed a clear preference for online training (46%) compared to blended (38%) and in-person (10%) modes.
The presentation sparked particular interest among symposium delegates for its ability to address one of the event’s central challenges: how to concretely transform business training programs to prepare professionals capable of guiding the transition toward sustainability. The research findings will guide the development of the ACE-EX training program, which will employ innovative technologies like virtual simulations and interactive scenarios to train a new generation of agricultural circular economy experts. The emerging insights will contribute to achieving European Green Deal objectives, supporting the European Union’s path to climate neutrality by training professionals who can implement circular economy practices in the agricultural sector.
