Final Phase Regional Development and Innovation
Bachelor of Rural Innovation
Career opportunities
Globalisation results in a continuous change of the rural situation (agricultural and non-agricultural) and of the interaction between the rural and urban domain. This leads to challenges in the area of marginalisation of small rural producers, food security and safety, resource management, market liberalisation, multi-functional agriculture and agrarian reform and rural information management. Against this background Rural Innovation policies have been reviewed, resulting in more programmes and projects with an interdisciplinary and participatory nature and more rural development programmes.
As a RDI-Professional you have gained a wide range of expertise in the area of communication, participatory planning and learning, rural economics, development approaches, agriculture, cultures, nature conservation, tourism, water management, sociology and environmental studies. Important attitudes are related to entrepreneurship, flexibility, empathy, sensitivity, reliability, thoroughness, client - and cooperative orientation.
Career opportunities do exist in projects and programmes in rural areas in and outside the EU. You will work as junior facilitator and process manager in these kind of regional development programmes, both in European and Non-European countries. You may find yourself working in a government institution, consultancy firm, in a service centre or innovation group with rural entrepreneurs. You will be perfectly equipped for positions with development organisations such as CMC, VSO, or PSO, or in companies and private organisations that carry out projects around the world. You will bring together stakeholders of the region, facilitate their efforts and enhance their networking. You will pick up new ideas and trends, and use them in policy making and concrete activities. In this way you can help people in the field to make a difference. Whether you work in your own or in another country you will be a mediator between groups of organisations for a better collaboration.
Erika Kommers from The Netherlands
Student
"To get into contact with other cultures is one of the best aspects of this study. You go abroad, and see how people get on there. Subsequently, you can help people to think differently in their situation, while at the same time you
learn how to think differently yourself. More in terms of solutions, I would say. And then: get to work!"
"Translate ideas and trends into policies and activities."