The KREAS Foundation is a non-profit organization created by the Federació Empresarial de Carns i Indústries Càrnies (FECIC) that brings more than 96% of the Catalan meat production, and the Fundación Universitaria Balmes (FUB), an entity  of the University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia, with a clear positioning of service to the territory and to its companies. The Foundation also has the complicity of the City Council of Olot that has opted for a successful project in the business and educational environment that directly affects the economic and social fabric.

Governance

The Patronat of the  KREAS Fundation is the governing, representation and administration body of the Foundation. The Executive Committee has the powers delegated statutory as well as the monitoring of the compliance and execution of the agreements of the Patronat. The General Manager is the figure that holds the executive direction and management of the entity with the support of a technical and administrative team.

Teaching staff Kreas

The teaching staff consists of teachers with proven experience in both the world of training and in the same food sector.

Mission: to build talent through a high-quality professional training offer which is relevant for the food industry. This will lead companies to be more competitive and to foster innovation as a driver for improvement.

Vision: to become a reference center for comprehensive  training in the food industry of the country; engine of innovation and strengthening of the productive environment with international ties.

Values:

• Innovation
• Social Responsibility
• Excellence
• Rigor
• Efficiency
• Initiative
• Territorial commitment
• Qualification
• Responsibility
• Flexibility

One of the first experiences of mobility and European cooperation of KREAS was in the course 2016/17, when we acted as hosts for a delegation of students of a CFGM of Quality and Food Safety of the Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School of Turkey. For three weeks, we offered a total of 15 students and 2 teachers a complete training in food safety in English, including laboratory practices, training in a pilot plant and several visits to companies of the sector. We also schedule different academic and recreational activities in order to put in touch our Dual FP students whit Turkish student. The experience was very enriching for both centers and for the students. It was very experiential and integrating learning. The aim of KREAS is repeating this type of experience in the future and we hope that, with the future planned visits of job shadowing to other schools that will be interested in visiting us and establishing collaborative links.

A second rewarding experience was in the 2017/18 academic year in which we organized a trip with 18 of our Higher Degree students of Process and Quality in the food industry in the Netherlands. We accepted the opportunity offered by the AERES Center (Stichting AERES groep) to visit them and we organized different activities interesting for our students. Among them are:

•  Visit the facilities of a cheese producing company (REMEKERKAAS),
•  Visit the University of Wageningen,
•  Entrance to the international food fair PLMA’s World of Private Label
•  Visit the MICROPIA exhibition, to study the world of microorganisms at the food level.

This first approach with the AERES centre, although brief, allowed us to organize a longer stay to deepen its model and strengthen our collaboration links.

Another experience of European cooperation in which KREAS has been participating for 2 years is the “European Vocational Skills Week”. It is an initiative of the European Commission that consists of concentrating, during a week a year, a large number of activities around vocational training. In 2018, our centre organized three days of open doors focused on promoting three subsectors of the agri-food industry with job opportunities: meat, dairy, and cereals sector. These days had dissemination and resonance at the European level.

KREAS also holds the ECHE card since 2019. The Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE) provides the general quality framework for European and international cooperation activities a higher education institution may carry out within Erasmus+. The award of an ECHE is a pre-requisite for all higher education institutions located in a Programme country and willing to participate in learning mobility of individuals and/or cooperation for innovation and good practices under Erasmus+.

The headquarters of Kreas is located in Olot, capital of the region of La Garrotxa, an eminently industrial territory, with a highly consolidated small and medium-sized enterprise, but also large tractor companies, mainly local capital, where the the most important industrial sector is   the Agri-food, both for production and for the number of workers.

Over 2,478 companies in Catalonia constitute one of Europe’s largest food clusters. With 19.8% of the industrial turnover, the food & drink sector is Catalonia’s most important industry, employing 17.9% of the workforce, and generating a turnover of over €25bn. The Catalan food & drink sector constantly needs to recruit skilled workers to become more competitive. Therefore, education and training is key.