The Pinolere Cultural Association lead until May 2023 a European project to promote the digitization of the craft sector and encourage the necessary generational change. Is about an Erasmus+ initiative that will facilitate the access of artisans to digital tools that improve their commercial and professional situation, will promote the connection between the sector and people with digital skills capable of incorporating innovation into craft trades, and will encourage the generational relief facilitating access to quality training.
The Edicra Project It is the only one of its characteristics that has received EU funding in this Erasmus + call in Canary Islands. Between November 2022 and May 2023, this initiative, which has the support of the Municipality of La Orotava, aspires to develop a methodology and a training program to facilitate the incorporation of young people into the world of crafts by digitizing the sector. Among the expected results, adapted training itineraries and a methodological guide for the use of digital tools in the craft world. Two proposals that the mayor of Villero, Francisco Linares, hopes will “find support to give them continuity from the Cabildo of Tenerife in the future”.
The former Island Councilor for Agriculture Jose Joaquin Bethencourt intervened this Wednesday, October 26, in the presentation of edicra as representative of consulting and technical advice Canarian Rural Lab, who wrote this project. And he explained that the initiative has two collaborating entities based in Ireland and Italy, which will put their knowledge at the service of the project, designed to collaborate in the digitization of crafts in La Orotava, Tenerife and the Canary Islands, “but also in the rest of Europe”.
The Erasmus + Edicra project, promoted by the Pinolere Cultural Association of La Orotava, has received the maximum funding foreseen for this type of initiative: 60,000 euros.
Edicra will experience three key moments: the opening meeting, next November, in Dublin (Ireland), together with the collaborating entity eurospeak; the hackathon digital crafta pioneering meeting in the Canary Islands of programmers and artisans for the development of pilot projects for digitization of the sector, which will last ten days and will take place between the months of March and April 2023, and the final meeting, scheduled for May next year in Italy, together with the collaborating entity Inclusion Gofrom Pignola.
Bethencourt explained that this project is fundamentally aimed at artisans from rural areas with low levels of digital skills and difficulties in accessing the market, and rural youthunemployed or with precarious jobs, who have a vocation and knowledge in digitization, such as network management, video editing, digital commerce or web development.
The president and manager of Pinolere, Leoncio Luis and Jesus Garcia, respectively, also attended the presentation, in which the second highlighted that this initiative attacks two of the biggest problems of handicrafts on the islands: poor digitization and lack of generational change. A use of new technologies that Jesus Garcia considers it “compatible with the defense of identity and traditions” and essential to revitalize a sector that has suffered greatly in recent years.
Linares valued the trajectory and the work of pinolere and expressed his satisfaction at the presentation in La Orotava of «a large-scale European project, such as Edicra, an essential initiative to help a craft sector that is in serious danger, as it will open doors to the world and help prevent further closures. businesses and that more traditional trades are lost.
The only one chosen in the Canary Islands
The Edicra project to promote the digitization of crafts in Europe is co-financed by the Erasmus + program of the European Union (EU) and is managed in Spain by the Spanish Service for the Internationalization of Education (Sepie). This initiative of the Pinolere Cultural Association, processed by the Lab Rural Canarias consultancy, has the support of the La Orotava City Council and is the only Canarian proposal that has received European support in this call. Financing has only been granted to 17 projects throughout Spain and this initiative to promote the digitization of the craft sector and generational change is the only one that will be developed in the Canary Islands, with a total budget of 60,000 euros. The Pinolere Cultural Project will have the support in this project of the entity eurospeakbased in Dublin (Ireland), and Inclusion Goanother association based in the Italian town of Pignola.
