Naturally sustainable: integration of sustainability impacts into teaching, learning and student and personnel engagement systems in vocational education and training institutions
▶Summary
Community projects are crucial for local identity as promoting shared understanding & sense of community with positive impacts on social cohesion. Sustainability & environmental issues can play a ...
▶Objectives
The overall aim of the project was to research best practices within European educational institutions, prepare innovative teaching methods to encourage civic engagement in environmental & climate change activities in EU & beyond. The strategic objectives were: 1. Motivate & empower people via new training & engagement opportunities in the field of Sustainability 2. Provide innovative solutions, teaching methods, research & practice to target groups, staff, teachers & learners in Vocational & higher Education 3. Expand the knowledge of best practices & key players in sustainable development in Europe to educational institutions The Operational Objectives were: 1. Produce a comparative study on the activities related to these sustainability issues, in each country (R1) 2. Create a collections of workshop scenarios presenting different approaches to the sustainability training & engagement activities of each country (R1) 3. Develop a trainer's guide including recommendations & best practices for the promotion of sustainability issues via training & engagement activities to empower youth (R1) 4. Create a Naturally Sustainable online learning platform with innovative learning resources available anytime, anywhere (R2)
▶Activities
The Naturally Sustainable project work plan was structured in work packages & sub-tasks. Each partner organisation had responsibility for several specific areas of activity. The project activities were then sub-divided into 5 work packages, each coordinated by a different partner: WP1: project management; WP2: implementation; WP3: experimentation; WP4: monitoring & quality evaluation; & WP5: dissemination including sharing, promotion & exploitation. RISEBA developed an effective communication cooperation & communication strategy, featuring a steering committee with 2 representatives per partner. organisation The partners communicated through various media. All project documents were downloaded & exchanged via Dropbox. A WhatsApp group was set up to facilitate communication between partners. The principal decision-making & coordination processes took place at 6 strategically-placed transnational meetings & bi-monthly videoconferences, as well as video collaboration sessions for the result sub-groups. Individual meetings took place at each transnational meeting between the coordinator & each partner organisation There were also 2 face- face meetings between each partner & the internal & external evaluators.
▶Impact
R1: Naturally Sustainable Training Programme with 3 main areas of focus: 1) Theoretical training material - a comparative study on the research & activities related to sustainability in each country/region 2) Trainer's guide including a collection of recommendations & best practise for the promotion of sustainability to empower target groups, 3) Practical training material - a collections of teaching tools, workshops R2: Online Learning Platform: The on-line learning platform provides a learning space to be used by any organisation or individual all over the Europe & ensure the sustainability of the project. It addresses VET, School, University & adult educators, addresses organisations active in the field of sustainability, organisations active in the field of VET & adult education & training, representatives in the field of social affairs, local, regional & national public authorities & policy makers & the representative of target groups. It includes all elements of the results produced in the project to facilitate ongoing learning, keep the interest of the users & engage them in learning activities.