Microgreens for VET — vocational learning that grows

A microgreens micro-enterprise is a complete work-based learning environment in miniature: one full production cycle of sow, grow, harvest, cost, price and sell in 7 to 14 days, on a classroom budget. This page is the deep how-to — the open materials, courses, toolkits and a working growing space in Athens that a VET teacher can use now, and a project partner can build on. Partnerships themselves are arranged with EVEC at evec.org.gr.

See what we have built →

Who this is for

Maybe you teach VET and want ready, hands-on material for green skills and entrepreneurship — or you are shaping an Erasmus+ project and looking for a method that adds something concrete. Either way, this page shows you the method in full: what it teaches, how a single production cycle runs, and everything we have already built and published around it. Work-based learning that is affordable, fast and real enough to produce measurable learning outcomes within a single school term.

The track record, stated plainly, in two layers. The methodology: running since 2025, born inside European Solidarity Corps project 2024-1-EL02-ESC51-VTJ-000225260, publishing everything it produces openly on this portal — so you can verify every claim on this page before you write a word of your application. The organisation behind it: EVEC Athens, working in European projects since 2017 — accredited for Erasmus+ Youth (2023-1-EL02-KA150-YOU-000188397), holder of the ESC Quality Label (2023-1-EL02-ESC50-QLA-000195138) — 20+ Erasmus+ and ESC projects delivered. The methodology lives on this portal; the organisation, and any partnership, lives at evec.org.gr.

What the method gives your learners

A VET-ready entrepreneurship toolkit

The Young Entrepreneurs toolkit (18–30) is a 10-day bootcamp joining daily growing practice with business planning, finance, marketing and pitching. It is published as an open draft, so your consortium can still shape it.

A full production cycle in 10 days

Our 10-Day Growing Guide, an open draft like all our toolkits, takes learners from seed to harvest step by step. Add costing, pricing and selling, and one short cycle covers green skills, food safety basics and entrepreneurship competences.

Free business courseware

Fifteen grow-for-business articles cover planning, production, costing and routes to market, and the free Start a Microgreens Business course packages the whole method as complete self-paced courseware. All of it is open access: usable in class tomorrow, with no licence to negotiate.

A working site for study visits

The growing space we run in Athens is functioning infrastructure, not a plan on paper. It can host study visits and job shadowing, and it shows learners what a low-cost urban micro-production site actually looks like.

Dissemination that outlives funding

This portal carries more than 110 open articles and keeps project results visible after the grant ends, which strengthens the dissemination and sustainability of results in your application.

Experience hosting internationals

EVEC Athens, the organisation behind the methodology, hosts the international European Solidarity Corps volunteers who run the growing, the workshops and the writing, so receiving learners from abroad is familiar ground.

Competences this develops

For your Relevance section, in application language: the bootcamp method aligns with EntreComp, the EU Entrepreneurship Competence Framework, across its three areas — Ideas & Opportunities, Resources and Into Action. Costing trays and setting prices develops ‘Financial & economic literacy’; finding the first customers develops ‘Spotting opportunities’; running the ten-day cycle end to end develops ‘Planning & management’ and ‘Learning through experience’.

The growing practice develops competences described in GreenComp, the EU sustainability competence framework — most directly in the areas ‘Envisioning sustainable futures’ and ‘Acting for sustainability’, with ‘Embodying sustainability values’ in play whenever learners weigh inputs, waste and local food against price. We claim alignment with these frameworks, not certification or formal accreditation, and these two paragraphs are written to be quoted.

For the qualification level your form asks about: our training modules are designed as modular, practice-oriented units at EQF levels 3–4 — from setting up and managing a small growing system to food-safety basics and lab-to-market steps — with a trainer-transferability methodology, so your own educators can deliver the training independently after initial capacity building.

The production cycle, in our own space

Harvesting radish microgreens with scissors
Harvested radish microgreens packed in a box
Growing records and trays on the work table
Sow, harvest, record, sell — photographed in our growing space in Athens.

Results you can use

Two tiers, honestly labelled. The growing space, the free Academy courses and this portal’s 110+ open articles are live and in daily use — cite them as existing results in your needs analysis. The two toolkits below are open drafts your consortium can help finish, and finishing them is a ready-made work package: piloting a draft OER with your learners is a legitimate, fundable project activity.

Young Entrepreneurs Toolkit

A 10-day bootcamp for 18–30 year olds combining growing with business planning, finance, marketing and pitching. Open draft with a feedback form — pilot it with your learners and help us finish it. The free bootcamp course in the Academy is the live, citable version of the same method.

Open the toolkit →

10-Day Growing Guide

The universal step-by-step guide from seed to harvest in ten days, covering the practical side of the production cycle described above. Open draft with a feedback form — tell us what your classroom needs from it.

Read the guide →

The cooperative growing space

Live and running today: a free growing space in Athens where young people can start a microgreens business without capital, and a visitable example of green entrepreneurship in practice.

Visit the cooperative page →

These are three examples, not the whole picture. See everything we have built →

Learn with us

Our free, self-paced courses are live open educational resources — take them yourself or use them with your learners. The Start a Microgreens Business bootcamp course is the complete, citable version of the 10-day method this page describes. This list updates as new courses are published.

All courses live in the EVEC Microgreens Academy.

From the knowledge base

The grow-for-business series teaches exactly the skills a VET curriculum needs; these are the three latest articles.

Browse the full series in our Grow for Business library.

Want to build a project around this?

This portal is where the method lives; partnerships are arranged with EVEC Athens, the organisation behind it, at evec.org.gr. Bring your project idea — a cooperation partnership or a mobility plan touching green skills, food or entrepreneurship — and EVEC will define a concrete role with you (subject expertise, toolkits, hosting a study visit or job shadowing, or dissemination through this portal) and join your application with a formal letter of commitment. A typical work package: EVEC prepares a draft toolkit, your learners pilot the 10-day cycle and collect feedback, and the final open-licensed version is published here where it stays visible after the grant ends.

Your vocation is not named on this page? It still fits — cooks, food technology, logistics, electronics, construction and more all have a microgreens hook. Find yours, then take the idea to EVEC.

The methodology: this portal is the home of the microgreens methodology — one hands-on way of learning that works for any vocation and any age, running since 2025.

The organisation behind it: EVEC Athens (European Voluntary and Educational Center), an accredited Greek NGO working in European projects since 2017 · OID E10172681 · PIC 909448430 · Erasmus+ Youth accreditation 2023-1-EL02-KA150-YOU-000188397 · ESC Quality Label 2023-1-EL02-ESC50-QLA-000195138 — both valid until 2027. Verify in the EU organisation registry (search for OID E10172681), see the track record, or visit the organisation at evec.org.gr.

Ready to partner on a project?

The methodology lives here on the portal; partnerships are arranged with EVEC Athens. Start at evec.org.gr and the team will take it from there.

Partner with EVEC →

Co-funded by the European Union.
This portal presents the microgreens methodology; the organisation behind it is EVEC Athens — the European Voluntary and Educational Center (evec.org.gr). Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.