NN40, May 2008
Education for Sustainable Development? Or The Sustainability of Education Investment? A Special Issue
Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Meeting the challenge of sustainable development
By Rupert Maclean, UNESCO-UNEVOC, Bonn
Email: r.maclean@unevoc.unesco.orgThe major challenge in the world today is to find ways of living and working sustainably, so that the reasonable needs and wants of people from all walks of life and in all countries can be satisfied without so over-exploiting the natural resources upon which all life depends that the ability of future generations to meet their need and wants is threatened.
Finding approaches to development that balance economic and social progress, address cultural differences, and respect ecological values and limits is the key to sustainable development. Moving towards this goal requires fundamental changes in human attitudes and behaviour ? in our personal lives, in our community activities, and in our places of work. Successfully making these changes is critically dependent on education and training.
TVET takes on a complex and distinctive character with regard to sustainable development. This is because ? both directly and indirectly ? TVET produces and consumes resources, as well as affects attitudes towards sustainability held by future workers. The manner in which production and consumption are managed can either contribute to sustainability or to practices and conditions that are not sustainable. During education and training, the greater the exposure of trainees to sustainable concepts, practices and examples, the more likely it is that the desired workplace culture change will take place in the future.
As both a consumer and a producer of resources, or more accurately a sector involved in the transformation of resources, TVET has multiple concerns about sustainability. The over-exploitation of natural resources, ill-health and poverty can all threaten the ability of future generations to satisfy their needs and wants. The challenge for TVET is to re-orient and re-direct its curricula to imbue students and trainees with respect for the conservation and sustainable use of resources, social equity and appropriate development, along with competencies to practice sustainable tasks at the workplaces of today and tomorrow.
Similarly, in a labour market undergoing the transition from the Industrial Age to the Information Age ? involving considerable job shift, re-training, and dislocation of workers ? the maintenance of currency in the labour market also assumes importance with regard to the sustainability of employment. In some advanced economies the proportion of workers with less than secondary school completion and those with diplomas has reversed during the past decade. The adult and continuing TVET provided to workers in jeopardy of job loss can result in sustainable employment that will also impact upon their children?s futures.
In addition, the growing significance of sustainability is having major impacts upon business and industry. Many companies are now not only reporting the results of their economic achievements to their shareholders and community stakeholders, but also the impacts of their social and environmental record through a system known as ?triple-bottom-line? reporting. Many new industries and employment opportunities are also being developed, e.g. in ecotourism, environmental monitoring, sustainable community development, eco-design, recycling, land rehabilitation, pollution control, waste water treatment and reuse, etc. All require skilled workers who have knowledge of ? and commitment to ? sustainability, as well as the requisite technical knowledge. This is creating new roles and courses in TVET.
These trends lead to questions about the curriculum changes needed to integrate sustainable development into TVET. Three potential strategies are:
To include sustainable development concepts in all courses for everyone (?TVET for All?)
To enhance focus upon sustainable development in occupationally relevant areas, e.g., water, auto repair, fabrication, carpentry, forestry, mining, ICTs, service sectors, etc
To indicate that new jobs will become available in sustainability industries
The inclusion of sustainable development in all courses can be built upon the traditional TVET practices in which skilled tradespeople taught apprentices to repair, re-use, and re-cycle materials and components at all levels in both developed and developing nations. Rural TVET has always operated upon these principles, especially in developing nations. Some TVET institutional practices and procedures require re-orientation to foster sustainability.
The inattention to sustainable development in some occupations is evident in the adoption of modular technology. Rather than repair components, it is easier to replace an entire module. This contributes to environmental degradation and the waste of resources and raises questions whether the price of ?progress? is too high? In developing nations, where replacement components are either unavailable or too expensive, procurement and stocking of modular replacement parts may be well beyond budgetary limits. Further, the question of how to dispose of replaced modular components raises issues of potential environmental damage, on the one hand and suggests development of recycling potential, on the other hand.
The generation of jobs in new sustainability industries, such as re-cycling, needs to be stressed ? and both legislative and curricular provision added to TVET to develop future employees in such industries. Many new industries and employment opportunities are also being developed, e.g. in ecotourism, environmental monitoring, sustainable community development, eco-design, recycling, land rehabilitation, pollution control, waste water treatment and reuse, recharging computer printer ink cartridges, etc.
Book Overview
Fien, J., Maclean, R. and Park, Mon-Gon (2008) Work, Learning and Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges, Springer, Dortrecht.
Work, Learning and Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges is a collection of 37 chapters that illustrate the many ways in which Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) can contribute to quality skills development for economically viable, environmentally sound and sustainable communities. As such, the book is the first that provides a comprehensive overview of the way countries, education systems and institutions have responded to the call for an integration of learning for work, citizenship and sustainability at the Second International Conference on Technical and Vocational Education which was held in Seoul in 1999. Discussions on the central theme of the Seoul Conference - lifelong learning and training for all, a bridge to the future? led to the conclusion that a new paradigm of both development and TVET was needed.
The chapters are organised in four sections. The first canvasses recent thinking about development and begins to ask questions about what the emphases on conservation, human rights, equality and justice, peace and democracy in current thinking about sustainable human development might mean for TVET. The chapters ask questions about the implications of major global trends for sustainable human resource development and about the approaches to development that would be followed ?if the planet and its people really mattered?. The answers to these questions lead to a consideration of the contrasting discourses of ?productivism? and ?ecologism? possible within TVET.
The chapters in Section 2 examine how TVET is responding to such new thinking about development. These chapters trace the ways in which important new themes and issues have risen in prominence in discussions about the nature, purpose and scope of TVET. These include themes and issues such as sustainable development, sustainable livelihoods, social sustainability, gender, Education for All, basic education, cross-cultural understanding and intercultural education, entrepreneurship and rural development. These issues are placed within discussions about the changing history and purposes of technology as a focus in education.
Section 3 provides case studies of experiences in a wide range of countries where efforts are being made to reorient TVET for sustainable development. The countries include, alphabetically, Australia, Azerbaijan, Canada, China, Germany, India, South Africa and the UK while the case studies provide examples of actions ranging form the levels of national policy and development assistance to curriculum development and review.
Section 4 continues the exploration of case studies begun in Section 3 but, instead of a national perspective, the chapters in Section 4 examine different ways in which the reorientation of TVET for sustainable development is being supported and enhanced. This includes examples of the development of principles of practice, support for school enterprises, the preparation of new curriculum resources, government-college covenants and innovative approaches to evaluation.
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