First, the educational ethos – which fosters an orientation to curiosity – seems to have been overshadowed by the demands of the market.
Second, little attention has been paid to the socio-economic constraints within which FE colleges operate.
Framed within this economic rationality, the role of further education providers has become inextricably linked to being a solution to the skills deficit. This is, of course, an absolutely vital part of FE’s role.
But as a result of this hyper focus, the curriculum “intent” of FE providers is being constructed around the vocabulary of employability and finance.
Yet education also encourages the development of students’ emancipatory, political and aesthetic potential. We need to focus on teaching and learning practices from the standpoint of pedagogical, rather than marketised, logic.
The overemphasis on a model of education dedicated to the economy works to dwarf the significance of abstract and powerful knowledge in humanities and social sciences.
The ‘intent’ of FE providers is being constructed around the vocabulary of employability and finance
It also undermines the core education values of intellectual independence, imagination and selflessness.
The underlying rationale for this perspective may well lie in an assumption about FE students’ intellectual ability. It could also reflect assumptions about their previous grades, which could reflect a range of socio-economic factors rather than act as real markers of “intelligence”.
So, it would be unreasonable to assume these learners are not developmentally ready to process “difficult theoretical knowledge” and therefore need only be employment-ready.
Instead, we could combine technical and academic knowledge, which could make the latter more accessible for FE students.
The inclusion of “powerful knowledge”, through subjects such as history, politics and philosophy, can add value to vocational curricula. However, the Skills for Jobs white paper makes no mention of this.
For example, it says the key focus is on economic growth and jobs, which will be delivered by “putting employers at the heart of the system so that education and training leads to jobs that can improve productivity and fill the skills gap”.
But an approach that valued powerful knowledge would not only enhance FE learners’ ability to meet civic obligations to the public and the market, but also make FE qualifications a better progression route into higher education.
Another concern I have is how the education inspection framework, which mainly draws on research from school settings, puts FE at a considerable disadvantage.
FE is a complex environment, and the demographics of FE colleges are different from schools. FE provides its learners with a chance to continue their education at whatever level is best suited to them.
We know from evidence that the personal skills wanted by employers and education institutions are social competences often shaped through previous experiences.
This includes experiences informed by social class and gender. Students will display these competences to different degrees.
It’s for this reason that differentiated assessment tools should be applied to colleges, rather than a universal inspection framework based on a one-size-fits-all perspective.
The market-based rationality is also embedded in the EIF, which, like the white paper, links the role of FE to employability skills. It also functions to obscure the significance of powerful socio-political knowledge as well as vitally important traditional educational principles.
For example, the key focus is on the attainment of “qualifications, skills and behaviours that enable students to find employment”. The onus is on a college to ensure that learners recognise that their skills are transferable.
Overall, a reform in FE policymaking that puts pedagogy, not just market needs, at the forefront of FE curricula is long overdue.
The lifelong loan entitlement will fail if policy doesn’t remove other barriers for students, writes Tim Blackman
Colleges Week marks the critical role colleges play in education and training, bridging skills gaps and equipping students of all ages to thrive in the workforce.
The Open University (OU) has a long history of links with the further education sector, working closely with individual colleges and the Association of Colleges to widen access to opportunity.
At the Conservative Party Conference recently there was a strong political and policy focus on skills, lifelong learning and broadening educational pathways.
This makes it an exciting as well as potentially challenging time for post-18 education.
But it is essential that we think about a collective post-18 system.
We must use this opportunity to be bold and ambitious, so that our frameworks enable flexible study without the often false distinctions between ‘academic’ and ‘technical’ paths.
The much-heralded lifelong loan entitlement in England is a key milestone on that journey but it will fail if it does not embrace incentives that overcome the many financial and practical barriers that adult learners face.
Critical to the lifelong loan entitlement is that everyone has access to the same funding entitlement regardless of how they choose to study.
That could be part-time, full-time or through modular study, face-to-face or distance learning, and higher technical qualification or traditional higher education qualifications.
Another area of uncertainty is around the fee caps and it is not yet clear how these will be set for modular study. Currently, there are two fee caps – one which applies to students registered on full-time courses and one which applies to students registered on part-time courses.
Under current legislation, there is no link between a part-time student’s study intensity and the fee cap which applies to them – it is set at 75 per cent of the full-time fee cap, no matter what.
This is a blocker to flexibility – many OU students want to be able to flex their study intensity over their qualification so they can fit their studies around their working and family lives.
We are calling for a single credit-based tuition fee cap linked to study intensity – where the fee cap applicable to a student would be determined based on how many credits they were actually studying rather than their mode of study.
Maintenance support should be extended to cover modular study
Maintenance support should also be extended to cover modular study, higher technical qualifications and distance learning rather than just full-time students and part-time degree students as it is at present.
At the Open University, we are well placed to work together with colleges, to help learners, businesses and public services succeed in what will be very challenging times.
We currently partner with 30 colleges across the four nations, validating their higher education programmes, sharing course content and expertise, and helping to expand their apprenticeships offer.
In England, we have worked with Milton Keynes College and the South Central Institute of Technology to offer new progression routes to engineering and computing degrees.
Learners will study at the college for two years, qualifying for a Higher National Diploma, and then progress to a third year at the OU to achieve a BA in engineering or computing honours.
This is made possible through a precedent award, which allows students to bypass the review that standard applicants undergo, expediting their application for the undergraduate degree.
Excitingly, our first students on this programme began their studies with us this month.
Such progression agreements are likely to become more common, helping those that want to qualify as quickly as possible to enter the workplace and earn.
The HND programmes at MKC cost £3,625 per annum – with the OU topping up £6,336 – making them affordable and an attractive option for many.
In Scotland, we’ve been working with 15 regional colleges to support transition between college and university.
These partnerships promote progression routes and credit transfer opportunities for students who wish to go on to degree study with the OU, again at lower cost while studying at the right pace for them.
The Open University in Wales has partnered with Cardiff and the Vale College to support 68 of its students to progress into higher education with monthly support interventions to help remove real and perceived barriers.
This is a model which can be adapted to work with other college partners.
Finally, in Northern Ireland the OU has been working with Belfast Metropolitan College to address the shortage of cyber security skills through a higher-level apprenticeship, leading to a foundation degree in cyber security.
This also allows students to progress to the final stage of the OU computing and IT degree.
We have a long history of being innovative and responsive to the needs of our learners, industry and public services.
Our partnership with the further education sector, as evidenced through some of these examples, demonstrates what is possible in challenging times.
FE staff will be funded to take a Masters or PhD by the Association of Colleges and NCFE, under a new scheme to fill research gaps in the sector.
Research Further will fund ten scholarships in the first year of a three-year scheme, focused on areas such as adult education and tackling inequalities.
The association’s senior policy manager for research and evidence Julia Belgutay said the FE sector has “historically had a limited amount of research to tap into when we consider reports, data and general knowledge around FE and skills”.
She said the “ground-breaking” collaboration between AoC and NCFE will “support practitioners from the chalkface, those who know the sector best, in helping fill this gap and ultimately improve practice and the sector as a whole”.
The AoC has also announced the launch of a new research unit to “coordinate commission and utilise high quality research to support informed post-16 teaching practice and policy development at scale”.
Both announcements come during Colleges Week, an annual event intended to celebrate the FE sector which this year is taking place between October 18 and 22.
Proposals to research digital and adult education particularly welcome
Research Further will fully fund tuition fees, with commitments being made annually, though the AoC could not say how much will funding the scheme will have in total.
While there are no specification on what scholars must focus on, proposals to research areas like digital, what works in specific subjects or with specific cohorts, adult education and tackling inequalities will be particularly welcomed.
Proposals should also demonstrate there is a gap in existing evidence for the area the scholar wants to look into.
Applicants should have contacted the university at which they would like to study, though they can be assisted to identify the most appropriate one.
Existing Masters or PhD students can also apply, and part-time and full-time projects will be considered.
The scholars’ work will be disseminated through a webinar series. New findings about pedagogy or policy will be shared through think pieces, reports, articles, and blogs.
Project will ‘power impact-focused research’
David Gallagher
NCFE chief executive David Gallagher is seeking “high quality data” which can “identify gaps” and allow the sector to “collaborate to tackle the changes which are needed within the education eco-system”.
Research Further will “power impact-focused research that will drive excellence and innovation in FE and make the greatest possible positive difference to learners’ lives,” he said.
The scheme is being supported by an advisory board made up of representatives from Ofsted, education technology company Jisc, Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the government, college leaders, research practitioners and the four nations of the UK. The precise membership is yet to be confirmed.
The board will advise on research themes and which applications will be funded.
This is not the first proposal supporting extra research in the FE sector: the Social Mobility Commission recommended in January 2020 the government spend £20 million on a research centre to explore “what works” in the sector and where extra investment is needed.
Applications for AoC-NCFE’s scheme are now open and close on 19 November. Applicants must work for an AoC member college and provide confirmation from their senior managers they will be allowed to spend at least one day a week on their course.
College leaders have warned that the government’s net zero target will fail unless all courses for 16- to 18-year-olds are changed to include compulsory modules on climate change.
They also want an additional £1.5 billion capital investment in the next three years to sustainably transform their estates and invest in technology required to train for green jobs.
Their demands have been made in a letter signed by 150 college bosses to prime minister Boris Johnson and education secretary Nadhim Zahawi. It comes less than two weeks before world leaders meet in Glasgow to discuss how to reduce the effects of climate change at the COP26 summit.
The government published its Net Zero Strategy on Tuesday, which details how ministers plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to reach an aim of net zero by 2050.
Some colleges have made their own commitments to become net zero by 2030 but there is currently no sector-wide target that all colleges have signed up to.
Ministers are also aiming to “support up to 440,000 jobs across net zero industries in 2030” and say in this week’s strategy that colleges will be “key” to this goal.
College leaders believe the net zero ambition is “likely to fail” without making education on climate change and sustainability part of all study programme courses.
A curriculum audit from their membership body, the Association of Colleges, has found that less than 1 per cent of post-16 students are currently on a course with broad coverage of climate education.
The college leaders say the Department for Education and Ofqual should urgently work with stakeholders like awarding bodies to review all qualification specifications and ensure that they describe how education for sustainable development (ESD) is addressed.
AoC chief executive David Hughes said: “The government’s plans for the transition to net-zero simply will not work without aligning education policy with climate and sustainability priorities – that includes embedding climate modules in all study courses.
“College leaders and students have been crystal clear this is something they want and is necessary to meet the emerging skills needs of a greener economy.”
Colleges are also calling on the government to establish national centres of excellence in low carbon skills.
These would be hubs of experts in colleges which “could enable collaboration and sharing of best practice across the sector, with an easily accessible and well-known point for employers and people to engage with”.
Additionally, ministers should “urgently” fast-track the lifelong loan entitlement for training in priority green sectors.
The entitlement is currently set to launch in 2025 and will allow people to access funding for four years of study between levels 4 and 6, either in full years or as modules throughout their life.
One hundred and forty universities, all part of Universities UK, committed yesterday to cut their emissions by at least 78 per cent by 2035 compared to 1990 levels. They have committed to net zero by 2050. Both targets are identical to those set by the government for the whole economy.
Neither the college leaders’ letter or the AoC’s ‘green college commitment’ report commit to a hard target for when all college campuses will become net zero.
But some have committed to doing so by 2030.
Gloucestershire College is one signed up to the target. It is planning to undergo a £4.8 million energy “retrofit”, which is being partly funded by a £2.8 million grant secured through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.
The project will involve installing ground source heat pumps, solar panels for the college to generate its own renewable energy, followed by battery storage and smart energy controls.
Matthew Burgess, Gloucestershire College principal, said it currently takes the equivalent of 13 million kettles being boiled to run his campus every single day, so becoming carbon-zero is the “biggest and most important goal we can have”.
Other colleges committed to becoming net zero by 2030 include Craven College and Harrogate College – both located in North Yorkshire.
Colleges want a £1.5 billion injection in the next three years to develop sustainable campuses. This would be in addition to the £1.5 billion already committed by this government over this parliament for college capital projects.
The AoC estimates that 237 English colleges hold 8.5 million square metres, which they say “presents a significant opportunity for [net zero] impact”.
A DfE spokesperson said: “As we build back greener from the pandemic, we are committed to supporting people to get the green skills they’ll need for the careers of tomorrow.
“From skills bootcamps to apprenticeships, T Levels and traineeships, our programmes will create the talent businesses need in key sectors and help people at all levels to get the skills they will need for the green jobs of the future.”
It’s that time of the year when tutors and teachers are extra busy showcasing course options to prospective students. With options evenings or open days already in the diary, helping learners choose qualifications that suit their learning style and needs, can be tricky. Which is why Pearson has launched a free BTEC Options tool, which will help you showcase the specific BTEC courses your centre offers.
It’s never been easier for current and prospective learners to explore how a BTEC qualification can open doors to university, an apprenticeship, or into the world of work.
BTECs are important qualifications for preparing young people and adults with the knowledge and skills needed for the jobs of the future. Particularly in these times of economic flux and uncertainty. BTEC qualifications give learners a balance of the skills and knowledge they need to progress into the careers they want and by teaching BTEC, colleges can create a broad, balanced and diverse curriculum in their local community for all learners.
Career-focused education is also a powerful driver of social mobility that benefits employers, our economy and our communities. The jobs of the future will require uniquely human skills.
Studying a BTEC can help learners of all ages apply their study in real-life scenarios, ensuring they are uniquely prepared with a range of entrepreneurial and employability skills. Those skills enable them to flourish in our competitive world of rapid technological change, and to enjoy a career fuelled by passion and purpose.
The new BTEC Options tool is specifically designed to help you talk to students and parents about their next steps. The tool is easy to use, engaging and interactive. What’s more, it allows you to focus solely on the BTEC subjects offered by your centre, offering a wealth of customisable information that will help you recruit and retain learners on their journey to success.
Students and parents can access:
A tailored online webpage that shows the BTEC courses your centre offers
An interactive careers quiz
Subject-specific information
Employability skills students will develop on the course
A range of career options after studying BTEC
Stories from BTEC students and employers in all subject areas
A unique URL so that they can browse in their own time.
If you have specific questions about BTEC or need further help or support for Options 2021 you can also contact Pearson on Twitter at @TeachBTEC with your questions, and they’ll get straight back to you.
Explore what a BTEC can do for you and your students at btecworks.com
“It means that UC claimants are now in an even better position to access sector specific training as part of the Department for Education’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee and the skills bootcamp initiatives,” she said.
This went up to 16 weeks if the claimant was on a skills bootcamp – which train adults aged 19 and over in fields such as digital, construction and green skills.
“It allows people across Great Britain to take part in work related training to get them those key skills and be ready with them for what employers really value and need,” Davies added.
The scheme of £3,000 incentive payments for employers to take on new apprentices were also extended from September to the end of January.
The eight-week Universal Credit rule has been criticised by the FE and skills sector, with the Association of Colleges publishing a report in June saying it meant claimants are “prevented from developing skills that would allow them to get into better-quality, more stable, better paid employment over the longer term”.
The latest DWP data reveals 5.8 million people were receiving Universal Credit in September 2021.
The chancellor’s spending review should include a “major investment” so that every prisoner has access to a digital device and the internet in their cell, according to the Prisoners’ Education Trust.
Rishi Sunak, who will deliver his spending review next week, has been called on by the charity for the investment after the Covid-19 lockdown exposed how prisons are “stuck in the digital dark ages”.
The Centre for Social Justice published a report in January and found that only 18 out of the 117 prisons in England and Wales have the cabling or hardware required to support broadband in cells.
And when the pandemic struck, face-to-face learning was replaced by worksheets posted under doors which were deemed unhelpful to more than half of those who received them, according to a survey published by the HM Inspectorate of Prisons in February.
Prisoners were kept in their cells for 23 hours a day during the 18-month prison lockdown.
The Prisoners’ Education Trust believes digital devices and “secure, limited access” to the internet in every cell would allow prisoners to use their time to “access educational materials, helping them to ‘level up’ and better prepare for digital life on release”.
The charity said it could not put an estimated figure on how much funding would be needed exactly, but it would be over £100 million.
This year’s Centre for Social Justice report noted that the Ministry of Justice estimates that the cost of installing the hardware necessary to support broadband throughout the country’s prison estate would be in the region of £100 million.
Devices for each prisoner are estimated to then cost around £207 per prisoner, according to think tank Reform. Considering there are around 79,000 prisoners in the country, the devices alone would cost over £16 million.
Then there would also be the cost of any necessary educational content plus the cost of installing the devices, training for staff, along with ongoing running costs.
Jon Collins, chief executive of the Prisoners’ Education Trust said: “Everyone in prison, wherever they are in the country and whatever their background, should have access to education. Digital technology can help to make this happen.
“It is possible to provide safe, secure intranet and internet access to people in prison and in-cell devices would open up a world of educational opportunities. Without this, the digital divide will become a chasm, with prison leavers re-entering society ill-equipped to cope in a digital world. It is time prisons move out of the digital dark ages.”
A prison service spokesperson from the Ministry of Justice said: “We’ve kept education running throughout the pandemic with digital technology and in-cell learning.
“Education is key to reducing reoffending and we are restarting face-to-face learning where it is safe to do so.”
The spending review will take place on October 27.
The government has said colleges will be “key” to hitting their target of supporting 440,000 net zero jobs by 2030.
The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy published its long-awaited Net Zero Strategy today, which details how ministers plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to reach an aim of net zero by 2050.
It comes less than two weeks before the COP26 summit in Glasgow, where world leaders will discuss how to reduce the effects of climate change.
Today’s strategy document states that it is the government’s ambition to “support up to 440,000 jobs across net zero industries in 2030, contributing towards a broader pivot to a greener economy which could support two million jobs in green sectors or by greening existing sectors”.
Reforming the skills system is a critical part of this plan, according to the document.
It states that new measures outlined in this year’s Skills for Jobs white paper will be “central” to this.
For example, the government is legislating through the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill to put employer leadership of new local skills improvement plans on a statutory footing and ensure they have “regard to skills needed to help deliver on our net zero target, adaptation to climate change, and other environmental goals”.
Colleges’ place at the “centre of their local communities and economies means that they are key to unlocking opportunities across the country,” the document says.
It adds that the government is reforming the adult skills funding and accountability system for colleges and other training providers to make sure they are “better supported to focus on helping their students into good jobs; reduce the complexity of funding so that colleges can focus on their core role of education and training; and define clearer roles and responsibilities for the key players in the system.
“This means that, for the first time, we will be able to reflect the value that relevant courses deliver to the taxpayer in the funding rate colleges receive for putting on courses.
“We will hold colleges to account for delivering good outcomes, and are consulting on proposals to introduce new accountability agreements setting out national priorities against which we expect colleges to deliver, for example enabling students to access opportunities in the green economy.”
While there is no mention of extra investment in FE providers to achieve the net zero goal, the government’s strategy lists off recent new policies they hope will contribute.
This includes green skills bootcamps, available in areas such as housing retrofit, solar, nuclear energy and vehicle electrification; and the adult level 3 offer under the lifetime skills guarantee which gives people access to free qualifications linked to green sectors.
The government recognises the “transition” through the skills system will require teachers in the further education sector to have a “strong understanding of sustainability”.
To this end, the government points out that employers have developed a refreshed apprenticeship standard for further education teaching – the level 5 learning and skills teacher apprenticeship standard – which came into effect in September 2021.
This apprenticeship, for the first time, requires that sustainability is integrated into their teaching, including through “modelling sustainable practices and promoting sustainable development principles in relation to their subject specialism”.
According to today’s strategy, “early estimates” from the apprenticeship’s trailblazer group suggest around 1,500 teachers each year could train using this apprenticeship standard.
It adds that this standard will “soon be incorporated into all future further education teaching qualifications, so that all teachers across all subject areas will be able to embed and promote sustainability in their teaching”.
COP26 is upon us. Agreements will be reached, hands shaken and agreements with the potential to drive rapid change across the world signed. Heads of state will return home ready to act on new targets or agreements, or at the very least, to figure out how to make it look like they’re doing so.
As a result of the agreements that come out of this make or break moment, business leaders will be compelled to adapt these changes into their vision and strategies to meet net zero, decarbonisation or even carbon negative targets.
What will this mean for the education sector and the new skills it will need to lead on? Earlier this year, FE News published an article on the sustainability roadmap for FE and HE institutions in the UK. The UNESCO 2030 roadmap is clear in its call for climate-ready learning environments, empowerment and upskilling of educators and more support for youth mobilisation on climate action.
There is still a huge piece missing when it comes to the picture of the skills needed to facilitate the social changes required to fight climate change. There has been much focus on ‘green jobs’ , such as the 694,000 of them that are forecast to exist across England by 2030 but the reality is that this is just part of a much, much bigger picture!
Whilst these green jobs will be essential for building a more sustainable economy, the overwhelming majority of us will continue to work in ‘non-green’ jobs in sectors that will still have to transform to become more sustainable. Green jobs alone will not bring the scale of change we need to meet sustainability targets.
It is not just a case of sustainability skills becoming essential for employability, but more that we have the challenge of changing personal and social behaviour across society to ensure that individuals know how their choices, as citizens and consumers, impact on the climate and future generations.
This means that our challenge goes far beyond developing skills for green jobs. We need to embed mass eco-literacy and sustainability skills across all sectors, job roles and society as a whole. The skills sector is the obvious choice to lead on this.
Where does this leave the teachers, students, apprentices and campus staff who could be taking action now but need the resources and training to do so? What can we do to support them?
A transformative solution for challenging times
An education and training solution which empowers the sector to lead on skills to mitigate and prevent the worst impacts of climate change, to equip all learners with the knowledge they need to support sustainability objectives, and the skills they need to be actively involved in change. That is the challenge we set ourselves at The Skills Network.
The solution needs to be accessible, adaptable and available to education institutes to personalise and align with their own focus, employer partnerships and region. It needs to provide practical strategy, support, end to end delivery resource and teacher training to empower education stakeholders to embed sustainability across their delivery to help them become Sustainability Change Makers.
The critical element here is impact. We do not need more people to know more things, but rather to feel able, empowered and ready to do more. To meet this challenge, and to address the huge sustainability skills gap we currently have, we are launching a suite of transformative solutions.
Understanding and applying environmental sustainability (level 2 RQF)
This unique programme is the first in the suite, and has the flexibility to draw relevance from a wide range of sectors, from those working in marketing admissions and finance on campus, to the learners doing their apprenticeships in hairdressers and catering companies, to people working in non green office jobs, or even working from home.
There are a lot of sustainability courses out there, with phrases like “raising awareness” or “equipping with knowledge” but this is not a course in GDPR or health and safety. There is a major lack of training, support and resources available to educators to embed it into the delivery of their own subject.
The Skills Network’s resources are different; designed to provide educators with an end to end solution for developing core sustainability skills and providing adaptable, sector-specific examples and many opportunities for practical application. Our level 2 qualification include project work applicable to each individual sector, and we provide the resources to embed this into full time programmes.
In line with this approach, our content explores key sustainability themes in a way that goes beyond basic knowledge transfer, and is instead relational and co constructed.We have embedded case studies and activities throughout our courses, which apply to a wide range of sectors and roles, ranging from ‘office’ job and service sectors to manual sectors, from large companies to individual sole traders, colleges to communities.
“That’s not co-constructed” you might say, and normally you would be right. In this new offer, however, we have added an additional project unit to our course offer on ‘Impact at Work’. This enables learners to take all of their new skills and knowledge to apply to practical sustainability scenarios in specific job roles and work sectors, which then feeds back into the learning resources as tangible, relatable examples of real impact.
Making real impact
The impact project component is a unique offer. Learners are asked to draw together their learning from the core units and apply it to make real change in their own setting, whether that be college, work, home or community.
From conducting and acting on sustainability audits to analysing sources of emissions and recommending and implementing changes, learners are firmly in the driving seat, and educators and institutions can be alongside in support.
We have created pathways for these learners to share that personal impact with us, so that an ever-increasing diversity of case studies can be fed back into the resources at learners’ disposal. The more a learner can see someone like themselves, making positive change in a context that feels personally relevant, the less distance there is from a sense of agency. In other words, if they do it, why can’t I?
In using this as a cornerstone resource to inspire change, educators can become instant sustainability champions, even if they are new to the subject. By taking our programme to use ‘off the shelf’ to deliver in-depth sustainability skills or by using our course editing tool to add in additional case studies and activities that are specific to the subject they teach, our resources can be used as a basis to deliver sustainability skills in everything from hairdressing and catering to construction and engineering!
Reflection, reaction, action.
Throughout our intensive, down-to-earth and practical suite of sustainability courses, we have created numerous opportunities to reflect, deepen learning, conduct independent research and to find out more about how each area of sustainability connects to the world around the learner. What do rising global temperatures mean for life in my region? What does the circular economy have to do with an apprentice plumber?
Each unit has opportunities to apply that learning. From small tasks at home, to organisations you can contact, to ideas for projects at work and in college. This approach is designed to build competency-based sustainability knowledge and skills that can be aligned to multiple roles and sectors, making learners more employable and able to use the practical skills developed on the programme to effect positive change at work
At each opportunity we connect the global context of big concepts like the UN SDGs and the big summits on climate change to the actions we see in everyday contexts around us. If we want to connect knowledge and reflection to action, we need to see the thread that runs through all of the narratives, policies and practices around us. Perhaps COP26 might feel a little less distant that way.
To help transform organisational cultures, systems, communities and societies, our offer is designed to find ways to meet people where they are, and shrink the distance between the issues we collectively face and the personal choices we make every single day.
The Leading Solution for Mass Sustainability and Eco Literacy Skills in Non-Green Jobs
As much as we have focused on creating relevance to a range of people, roles, sectors and contexts, nobody knows your setting better than you do. That means flexibility and adaptability will be a critical success factor for a sustainability training that aims at making real change in society.
While our ready to go, off-the-shelf provision will certainly appeal to many, we do offer a course builder tool which allows you to fully adapt, edit, brand and personalise the provision to your institute or subject.
Getting started with sustainability training can be very time consuming, but this way there is no need to start from scratch. You can add in examples from your own institution, your own case studies, extend areas that connect to key lines of strategy, and any number of other tweaks to take personalisation to the next level. Whatever your provision, region, local or national ecosystem, making this work for you is
Learning can be fully online (generally a lower carbon option!) or blended to add, for example, site visits and opportunities for experiential learning. Mass sustainability skills mean the broadest possible access, and online learning supports this.
This way, education institutes and businesses can use our core content to support their own branded, institutionalised sustainability strategy, with clear connections to specific student/institute projects and practical application activities.
Moving forward from there, we have a range of progression routes to more specialised courses for teachers and leaders, as well as consultancy support to help embed ESD within your wider sustainability strategy, from core projects to employer partnerships.
Through these layers of quality skills training and support, embedding sustainability in your institution just became much more accessible. If we are to be bold, we must be willing to say that every job is a green job in a truly sustainable world. That means every job must be supported with the skills training to make that a reality..
Empowering action now, not later
An ambitious sustainability strategy is not just an extra, or a nice-to-have in any business or education institution. Sustainability training is not an added value, but inherent. Minimising our impact on people and the planet is not just good for business and innovation, but a responsibility and an obligation.
The tidal wave of demand for sustainability skills is now coming into full view, but it is also our responsibility to equip the mass workforce with these skills, so that real systemic change is possible.
We need not wait for new rafts of regulations and targets to be handed down, especially those which shift with the prevailing political wind. If the last 20 years have proved anything, it is that we cannot always look up for leadership on climate action.
Arming our staff and students with knowledge of what sustainability means and how it connects to each of them, means they will see the way they live, eat, travel and work in a new light. The invigorating realisation that the worst impacts of climate change need not happen if we all step up, can make all the difference.
Leadership, empowerment, future skills and positive action. What’s not to like?
Keep calm and carry on recycling if you like, but we owe it to generations present and pending to learn more, say more, do more. To give this our best shot, and to do it together we need to be inclusive and make sure everyone gets involved.
We invite institutions to reach out and work with us to ensure that when these targets and strategies filter down from COP26, we have a new generation of graduates and learners, educators and leaders, who know just how to drive them forward.
For more information on The Skills Network’s sustainability courses and to sign up click here
