Aligning VET curricula to Greening and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Erasmus Project

Project Title

Aligning VET curricula to Greening and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Energy and resources; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

The idea for this project is to promote the training about Greening in VET in line with policies of the EU and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as identified by the United Nations Development Programme for the year 2030.

Since the project started, the project themes of Greening and the SDGs have been prioritized by the EU, UN and countries across the globe. The importance of teaching about Greening and the SDGs has become so much more relevant and important as the years passed making this project very highly relevant. The successful completion of the project provides a wealth of knowledge and reference material that will aid schools, institutions and policy makers with formal preparation and training to address Greening and the SDGs.

VET plays a key part in this as it prepares learners in a variety of subjects that are all connected, somehow, to the environment. Besides, students are citizens of the world and will be the leaders and policy makers of the future, thus impacting our planet.

The project was partially impacted by the Covid19 pandemic, but a 4 month extension of the project enabled the partners to complete the project successfully. In fact the objectives set out in the project application were achieved:

1. To raise awareness of the Greening issues across all VET disciplines and link them to the SDG priorities;
This was achieved with the engagement of learners and teachers at various stages of the project and will continue after the project end in view of the website and smartphone app that will be maintained by the partners. The Intellectual Outputs (IO) 1 (which developed the study unit for learners) and 2 & 3 (which provided the teacher training and toolkit) helped significantly to meet this objective. The Teacher training activity C1 was also a very important contributor to this goal.

2. To disseminate knowledge and deliver relevant accredited training related to Greening;
The activities mentioned in 1 above helped disseminate the knowledge and accredited training about Greening and the SDGs. Apart from this, various activities held at the partner institutions helped in this regard as well. Just to mention the “Foster a Tree” campaign run at MCAST in Malta amongst others as documented in the greening guidebook produced in IO6.

3. To include Greening across all VET curricula through the design, development and deployment of an accredited module that can be included in any VET course curriculum or else taken independently;
This was completed under IO1. A VET accredited Level 4 training module was developed and shared with all partners. At the end of the project, the knowledge has been shared with UNESCO UNEVOC to disseminate across its global network of 220 Centres.

4. To up-skill and prepare VET teachers in the Greening and environmental issues;
This objective was achieved as IO 2 & 3 were developed and a group of teachers (4 from each partner) were trained and certified to deliver the training as part of the Training activity C1.

5. To outreach, provide relevant information and involve all VET learners and the local communities in Greening.
This objective was achieved in a number of ways. Some are the Greening activities embarked on the campus involving learners and staff, the development of an informative website and smartphone app to engage with local and global communities on the aspects of Greening and the SDGs, the design and development of the Greening Guidebook for schools developed under IO6.

Therefore, the Target Groups of VET Learners, VET Teachers and the Communities were properly addressed and engaged as planned in the project application.

The transnational dimension of this project needs to be emphasized. The partners in Spain, Malta, North Macedonia and Greece have contributed significantly through their knowledge and expertise to all the activities of the project. This reflects on the quality of the outputs.

Also the project has a direct influence on employability, both in the short and long term, since the relevance of Greening in various jobs and careers has become very important today. Learners with relevant training in Greening are valued highly.

At the project application stage we had stated “Generally speaking, this project will result in the modernization of the VET approach in a number of countries with respect to Greening issues. The subsequent potential of disseminating the knowledge gained across the EU and its partner countries as well as to the global platform increase the significance of this project.” And this has been achieved and will continue to be achieved in the years to come with the material and knowledge developed and disseminated. The project partners had also stated that their intention is to build a legacy of this project and this is happening now as the output products of this project are being disseminated not only in the partner countries but also across the EU, UNESCO UNEVOC and effectively globally through the Internet.

Project Website

https://greenvet4sdg.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 166554 Eur

Project Coordinator

MALTA COLLEGE OF ARTS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY & Country: MT

Project Partners

• SIVITANIDEIOS DIMOSIA SCHOLI TECHNON KAI EPANGELMATON
• Centro Público Integrado de Formación Profesional Pirámide
• Zetva na znaenje