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Sustainable Skills Project

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Embedding Education for Sustainable Development in Further Education

In July 2009, LGEC began a new three-year “Sustainable Skills” project. This project is working with colleges in the North West to support tutors in embedding the concepts of Sustainable Development (SD) into the teaching of four vocational courses. This will enable students and tutors to improve their understanding of:

Photo courtesy of Greenforall.org Photo courtesy of Vancouver Film School

  • their role in global poverty and other development issues;
  • the relationship between their careers and sustainable development;
  • practical skills that contribute toward positive social and environmental change.

LGEC is working closely with two partner colleges to provide training, to develop contextualised activities, and to facilitate a tutor support network. Via national dissemination of best practice to the further education (FE) sector, the project will create a legacy in which other vocational college tutors will adapt and use content and approaches from the project.

Photo courtesy of Tom PurvesPhoto courtesy of Stephan Radway

Specific outcomes of the project include:

  • Sustainable Development training for more than 50 tutors in the North West.
  • The creation of eight piloted and evaluated SD activities in four vocational courses.
  • Gains in SD knowledge, skills and understanding by 500 college students.
  • A published “Framework for Sustainable Development in Business; Art and Design; Travel and Tourism; and Health
    and Social Care”, with best practices from the project.
  • An end-of-project conference to share findings and provide further training.
  • An online ESD resource bank for FE tutors.
  • A network of FE colleges focussed on embedding the principles of sustainable development across the entire institution.
  • A quarterly e-mail newsletter focussing on ESD and the FE curriculum (beginning late 2009).
  • An SD workshop that can be included in Cert Ed courses for new tutors.

For more information, contact Brian Johnson, brian.johnson(at)lgec.org.uk or 01772 252299.

Funding for the Sustainable Skills project has been provided by
the Department for International Development’s Development Awareness Fund.

The information on this page is also available to download as a PDF document.

Photo credits (from top): GreenForAll.org; Vancouver Film School; Stephan Radway; Tom Purves.