Two-thirds of staff in the further education sector feel the system does not adequately educate learners on sustainability issues, a new report by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) has revealed.
According to the new research, 68 per cent of the workforce hold that position, while over 70 per cent feel there needs to be either more or a lot more teaching in the post-16 UK education system about a range of subjects that relate to education for sustainable development (ESD). The report is based on a survey of over 800 teachers, trainers and leaders in the FE sector, which includes colleges and independent training providers.
In November 2020, the UK government published an ambitious 10-point plan to create and support up to 250,000 green, high-skilled jobs. The Green Jobs Taskforce was established last year to set the direction for the job market to enable the transition to a high-skill, low carbon economy, and published its recommendations to the education and skills sector as well as industry and government last month.
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Today’s ETF report found that awareness of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is relatively low in the FE and training sector, with just 43 per cent of respondents being familiar with them prior to participating in the survey. The majority of respondents (85 per cent) agree that the FE and Training sector has a valuable role to play in the achievement of sustainability goals. Nearly all respondents (94 per cent) believe that all UK learners should be taught about sustainability issues. The ETF says it believes that the sector has a critical role to play in combating climate change and achieving sustainability and social justice both nationally and globally.
Author of the report, Charlotte Bonner, national head of education for sustainable development at the Education and Training Foundation, said: “Our research shows there is lots of great ESD practice happening across the country. Although there is widespread belief that the further education and training sector is well placed to lead on sustainability solutions, this potential isn’t yet being realised. Everyone has a role to play. FE sector leaders and educators need support to better equip current and future learners with the knowledge to understand the global challenges and the skills and agency to contribute to solving them.
“The results will further inform the ETF’s strategy to support the sector’s adoption of ESD to enhance teaching, learning, assessment and leadership. It also provides sector practitioners, providers and stakeholders data with which to plan their own ESD approaches.”
Steve Frampton, FE/HE climate commissioner and Association of Colleges (AoC) climate commissioner said: “All our FE staff need urgent support and training to meet the needs identified by current and future learners, who consider the climate emergency as the most important challenge we face now. Without such support we will not achieve the existing government targets, let alone the more demanding ones our young people rightly want.
“The sector doesn’t lack ambition and has brilliant staff and leaders developing significant pockets of excellence, but lacks the vital significant investment, training, and resources to tackle these global challenges. This report helps highlight the way forward to ensure no college, no community, no staff and our amazing students gets left behind in this crisis.”
The Department for Education has been approached for comment.
