FishEDU
Key information
Capacity Building in Fisheries and Aquaculture Education in the Kyrgyz Republic (FishEDU)
Project Budget: €475 549 with MFA funding, total budget €594 437
Project Duration: 1 March 2017–30 August 2021
Coordinating Institution: University of Eastern Finland (UEF)
Partner Institution(s): Kyrgyz National Agrarian University, Kyrgyz Republic
Affiliate Partners: UN World Food Programme, Kyrgyz Republic Country Office; UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Kyrgyz Republic Country Office; Regional Central Asian and Caucasus Fisheries and Aquaculture Commission; Department of Fisheries at the Ministry of Agriculture of the Kyrgyz; Aqua Service Ltd., Kyrgyz Republic; Natural Resources Institute Finland; Stimulator Ltd., Finland and Raisio Aqua Ltd., Finland
Project description and key results
The FishEDU project aimed at building capacity at Kyrgyz National Agrarian University (KNAU) to develop fisheries and aquaculture training and development. Two curricula for training professionals in fish farming and fishery and aquaculture management had been earlier developed in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation with funding from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs but KNAU faced challenges in their implementation due to a lack of trained teachers, training materials and training facilities.
As a result of the project, fisheries and aquaculture programmes at KNAU (Bachelor) and the Agrotechnical College (Vocational) both were approved by the Ministry of Education of the Kyrgyz Republic. Teachers were trained in pedagogics and delivering fisheries and aquaculture courses and staff trained in managing the fisheries and aquaculture programmes. The project managed to produce more course plans than originally planned and finally a total of 27 course plans and 3 short courses were developed and approved, in both English and Russian. Course materials were also produced and procured (218 titles in the Aquacentre Library and and 111 titles elibrary, 5 course manuals and a final publication summarising the results of the project). KNAU now has a well-developed, modern training and learning environment for fisheries and aquaculture training (FishEDU Demonstration Fish Farm, Aquacentre & E-library, Water Laboratory and Kitchen).