New Skills for VET Teachers

More and more vocational schools are opting for sustainability in their strategy. So is Albeda. One of Albeda's core values is responsibility. Responsible for our students and colleagues, but also for our own actions. Responsible for the city of Rotterdam and the Rijnmond region, but also for the rest of the world around us. The world of our and future generations. We train our students based on that responsibility. Not only to well-functioning professionals, but to fully-fledged participants in society. And with this responsibility comes a vision of sustainability. A vision of how we as Albeda can contribute to a more sustainable world. A world in which we do not exhaust the earth, but in which people, the environment and the economy are in balance. On the one hand by making smart and conscious choices ourselves, on the other by making our students and each other aware of the influence we have as individuals and as a collective. Because with an organization in which 22,000 students and 2,400 employees work together every day, we can make a difference.  

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To make sustainability a real part of Albeda's identity, we want this to be reflected in all conceivable areas: in our policy, in the school environment, in the curriculum, in our pedagogical and didactic approach, in our business operations and as part of our expertise. In doing so, we have linked the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations with areas of focus that we recognize: 

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• Sustainable education 

• Sustainable HR policy 

• Sustainable housing 

• Sustainable business operations 
   

The focus area Sustainable education touches on the skills of our teachers. What skills do they need to make sustainability return to education? 

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In 2013, the Department of Environment, Nature and Energy of the Flemish government, Division of Environmental Integration and Subsidies, made a proposal to publish a list of knowledge and skills (Education for sustainable development (EDO), 2013). 

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They state that teachers need the following: new knowledge, the ability to guide students in value development, the ability to deal with emotions and sustainability issues also require a certain action orientation. In addition, it is important that teachers have competences such as systems thinking, anticipation, normative thinking, strategic thinking, collaboration, critical thinking, problem -solving skills and self-awareness. 

Teachers need knowledge about sustainability. Sustainability in general, for example on the basis of the SDGs, but also sustainability in relation to the professional field for which we train our students. What fundamental causes and effects are there for these sustainability issues? To then think critically about this and formulate creative alternatives for one's own field. 

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Systems thinking is important here in order to alternately broaden and deepen the thinking when studying and teaching sustainability issues. In this it is important that teachers can describe the functioning of natural, social and economic systems and explain to students how they are intertwined. It is important that the teacher can also explain to the students what the interdependence is between people here and elsewhere in the world, at the moment and in the future. You can think of the issue of food distribution among the world population. 

Value development is an important skill, so that the teacher can support students to clarify their own values by exposing underlying values and value conflicts in sustainability issues. It is important that the teacher knows his own values and shows understanding for those of others. The teacher can also shed light on assumptions and power relations that form the basis of sustainability issues. 

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Sustainability issues can evoke emotions, in the lecturer himself, in the professional field, but certainly also in students. It is important that the teacher can shed light on dilemmas, problems, tensions and conflicts in the classroom from different angles. The teacher stimulates and guides teachers to gain insight into their own emotions and feelings with regard to sustainability issues and can use these emotions of students to clarify differences in values. 

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Sustainability issues also require action orientation. For example, the teacher can use sustainability issues to design a powerful learning environment that encourages students to become active global citizens. Teachers actively seek collaboration with other teachers and the professional field in order to design meaningful activities for our students. 

We can conclude that teachers need different knowledge and skills to teach sustainability. We do see, however, that many of these skills and competences do not apply specifically to sustainability issues, but that they are skills that teachers already have or may have to deal with. At Albeda, we choose to introduce teachers to the SDGs through professionalization and to work on the issue of how they can incorporate these SDGs in their own education in the training. The training uses the Design Thinking methodology for this. 

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