Shaping the future with vocational training for sustainable development

Vocational education and training plays a decisive role on the path to sustainable development. Innovations in industry and society that embrace sustainability can be achieved only with the help of competent professionals. This was the guiding statement today when Prof. Reinhold Weiß, Deputy President and Head of Research at the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), and Dr Heinrich Bottermann, Secretary General of the German Federal Foundation for the Environment (DBU), opened the joint conference "Berufsbildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung: Perspektiven und Strategien 2015+" (Vocational Training for Sustainable Development: Prospects and Strategies 2015+) in Osnabrück. More than 150 stakeholders from all fields of vocational education and training followed the invitation by the DBU and the BIBB and discussed current challenges and prospects for the new World Programme of Action for "Education for Sustainable Development" of the United Nations (UN) during the two-day conference.

The point of departure for this are the results of the past UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005 – 2014). Over the past ten years, a wide range of educational programmes, curricula, learning materials and more have been developed and implemented regarding the fields of climate protection, responsible use of resources and fair trade in the workplace in more than 200 award-winning projects and programmes. The BIBB and DBU have stated that these will now be further developed and structurally incorporated into the vocational education and training system, following the current objective "From Project to Structure".

The energy transition, new concepts of mobility and urbanisation as well as industry 4.0 place new and high demands on professional activity in the workplace. "Sustainable development must be defined for the individual occupational fields on the basis of concrete work and business processes so that the abstract idea can evolve into concrete occupational competences. Sustainability as part of the professional identity is a good basis to enable tomorrow's qualified professionals to assume responsibility for the future in their professional activities", emphasised BIBB Head of Research Weiß.

What is required are qualified employees who are able to master the necessary measures in removing the fossil fuel industry and developing a regenerative economy in the sense of a circular economy. This structural change means that occupational qualifications must be adapted with a focus on sustainability regarding competences and under due consideration of future trends such as digitalisation and automation.

"Concretely, what is needed are both technical and general competences such as the ability to make decisions in uncertain situations and participative action in collaborative structures. For example, skilled tradesmen in the construction industry must have the ability not only to use modern energy efficiency technologies, but to co-ordinate these where necessary with other involved trades and to find cost-efficient and user-friendly solutions in consulting with customers", explained DBU Secretary General Bottermann.

The specialist conference is taking place today and tomorrow at the DBU-Zentrum für Umweltkommunikation (DBU Centre for Environmental Communication) in Osnabrück. The presentation of concrete projects will be a main feature of the conference. For instance, Rainer Nitsche, Alderman of the City of Magdeburg, will present the "Green Cities, Green Industries, Green Jobs Magdeburg" strategy. Two medium-sized businesses – the Meyer Technik Group from Ganderkesee and the LWL-Klinikum hospital in Münster – will demonstrate how they implement sustainable development in their enterprises and in the training of their apprentices. Walter Hirche, former President of the German UNESCO Commission, will provide an overview of the new World Programme of Action for "Education for Sustainable Development" and the German Federal Ministries of Education and Research (BMBF) and for Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) will present their corresponding funding programmes.

About the context:
The conference is based on the results generated by the "Vocational Education and Training" working group in the UN Decade of "Education for Sustainable Development" and takes up the group's demands as outlined in the strategy paper "From Project to Structure": www.bne-portal.de/un-dekade/un-dekade-deutschland/arbeitsgruppen/ag-berufliche-aus-und-weiterbildung/

Information on the BIBB model test "Vocational Training for Sustainable Development" is available under https://www2.bibb.de/bibbtools/de/ssl/4936.php

More information on the DBU/BIBB conference under www.bibb.de/de/25101.php

Contact at the BIBB:
Barbara Hemkes
Andrea Mohoric

Contact at the DBU:
Verena Exner; Email: V.Exner@dbu.de

Images available for download under www.bibb.de/pressefotos.

Specimen copy requested.