We’re excited to introduce the new ‘Learning for Sustainability in colleges – a guide to support practice, development and understanding’, which has been co-designed by colleagues working in in teaching, learning (including supporting learning), and assessment in colleges. It’s a resource which can not only make a real difference, but that has practitioner needs at its very heart and is rooted in a solid understanding of the challenges they’re facing. We’re proud to have been a part of this important journey.

 What is Learning for Sustainability?

LfS is a whole-setting approach which embraces global citizenship, sustainable development, and outdoor learning. It includes transformational learning on such issues as social justice, rights, climate change, nature, biodiversity loss, and inequality.

Practitioners and learners need to understand the impact of people’s choices socially, economically, culturally and ecologically on the wider world, and to change behaviours accordingly.

As practitioners, if we deeply embed LfS into our everyday learning and teaching practice, we ensure that the next generation of workers and citizens are fully equipped to build a sustainable future.

A collaborative approach to supporting colleges

Collaboration is a key element of progressing learning for sustainability. As such, it made sense for the guide to be designed in partnership.

We’re delighted to have worked closely with the EAUC, who lead this project, alongside our friends at Learning for Sustainability Scotland, the College Development Network, and college practitioners.

What’s in the guide and who is it for?

This new guide is primarily for practitioners, and those with responsibility for curriculum development. It may also be useful for senior leaders, directors, principal professional and senior staff, along with community partners, employers, policy makers and sector bodies.

Whether you need help getting started or ideas and resources to enable you to further develop your knowledge and practice of LfS, this guide will help. It has everything you need to better understand what LfS is about and the policy and legislative drivers.

It introduces five key principles to support practitioners in delivering LfS, as well as the RISE (Recognising, Integrating, Strengthening and Elevating) stages of professional development, which enables you to benchmark your journey.

Our spirit of collaboration has continued as we launch this research, with a joint blog, which reveals how this resource was created, as well as featuring reviews from some of the practitioners who helped us shape it.

The role of colleges in delivering LfS

Colleges are at the heart of communities. Their learners, many of whom are from more marginalised communities, should have access to opportunities essential for Scotland’s sustainable future, across diverse employer needs and sectors. Employers are increasingly seeking to recruit people with the skills associated with LfS. PWC’s Green jobs Barometer shows that across the UK, and particularly Scotland, there is a growing market for green jobs, where demand for green skills already outweighs supply.

And it’s about fairness – a Just Transition is essential to ensure equity while tackling the nature, climate and pollution crises, which disproportionately affects disadvantaged communities. The role of colleges here is pivotal.

Share your feedback

Everyone involved in the creation of the guide is keen to hear your feedback on this guide – how you are using it to begin or progress your LfS journey. Your feedback will help to evolve the guide and case studies over time. To provide feedback, or for more information on the guide, please email kmobius@eauc.org.uk.