Naturally sustainable: integration of sustainability impacts into teaching, learning and student and personnel engagement systems in vocational education and training institutions

<< Background >>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 relevant role in promoting citizens’ participation in cities & regions.Education institutions are influential in implementing concepts of sustainable development & they impact the economic, social & environmental dimensions of the communities & regions around them. Society expects them to educate the youth & contribute to the society. Supporting & mobilising staff & students from different countries will lead to an inclusive growth with a well-functioning democratic, inclusive society based on solidarity & values.Still there is no clear understanding how to integrate sustainability into the systems, no guidelines to action, no checklist that would be equally helpful for all educational institutions to increase awareness of sustainable development, civic participation & the added-value brought by the European Union.The Naturally Sustainable project hopes to help to fill this gap & contribute to increasing awareness & motivation for sustainable development among staff & learners in educational institutions.<< 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 Sustainability2.Provide innovative solutions, teaching methods, research & practice to target groups, staff, teachers & learners in Vocational & higher Education3.Expand the knowledge of best practices & key players in sustainable development in Europe to educational institutionsThe 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)<< Implementation >>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.<< Results >>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/region2) 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, workshopsR2: 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.