Advance HE Blog: Developing Skills and Capabilities Relevant to Sustainability

Advance HE Blog From Ayrshire College, which is delivering courses to create the next generation of environmentally conscious teachers, to Sutton College, which is working with care homes to tackle the issue of recruitment and high turnover of staff in the care home sector, the initiatives being undertaken by institutions to help secure a sustainable future are increasingly varied. 

The 2018 Green Gown Awards, which took place on Thursday 8th November at The National Railway Museum in York, celebrated the best in sustainability initiatives from universities and colleges across the UK and Ireland - and amongst the winners were institutions that are developing courses to ensure future graduates are able to put sustainability at the heart of their agendas. 

Leading the way in this area is London College of Fashion, winner of the Next Generation Learning and Skills Green Gown Award. The Centre for Sustainable Fashion at LCF has created the world’s first online course on luxury fashion and sustainability, in partnership with luxury fashion group Kering. This six-week course embodies a commitment to open-sourcing knowledge and serves as an important tool to informing and transforming fashion industry practice through a democratic non-elitist learning community.  It has been designed for a massive online global audience, recruiting 10,620 learners from 144 countries in its first run in 2018.

"LCF has created the world’s first online course on luxury fashion and sustainability"

Also developing discipline-specific educational resources for provision in the area of ‘future skills’ for sustainability is the University College of Estate Management, which was highly commended in the Next Generation Learning and Skills Green Gown Award category. A series of individual freely available CPD learning packages have been produced which support and inform curricula on ‘future skills’ for sustainability within the construction, surveying and property sectors. Engaging with industry, intermediaries, employers and professional bodies has identified the need for this provision.  It aims to build longer-term strategic relationships and to support Higher Education Institution’s (HEIs) response to identified workforce development needs.

It's exciting to see universities and colleges developing courses and capabilities in broader areas - including community involvement and global environmental awareness. You can read more about all of the projects above on the Sustainability Exchange website.

Read the full blog here.