Integrating sustainable development in TVET curriculum

Sustainable development (SD) is an elusive term, which many people misunderstand to only refer to environmental protection or economic development. SD is more than that. It is about maintaining and improving the quality of life without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It is not limited to a concern for the natural environment or focused exclusively on economic development. Rather SD is a concept based on integrating sociocultural, environmental and economic considerations. Moving towards the goal of SD requires fundamental changes in human attitudes...  [+] Show more

Sustainable development (SD) is an elusive term, which many people misunderstand to only refer to environmental protection or economic development. SD is more than that. It is about maintaining and improving the quality of life without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It is not limited to a concern for the natural environment or focused exclusively on economic development. Rather SD is a concept based on integrating sociocultural, environmental and economic considerations. Moving towards the goal of SD requires fundamental changes in human attitudes and behavior - 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. The changing nature of the world of work, especially due to globalization and technological changes, demands how these changes impact upon the quality of social, economic and environmental conditions. [Technical and vocational education and training] TVET can play an instrumental role in developing a new generation of individuals who will face the challenge of achieving sustainable socioeconomic development. The growing concern about SD has led present day policy makers, administrators and educators to call for a more holistic and integrated SD which demands for linkages among environment, social, technological and economic priorities. These priority concerns and issues indicate that TVET needs to focus on the three dimensions of sustainability - economic, social and environmental. The curriculum in TVET has to reflect these changes and needs to provide knowledge, skills and values that will help technician students cope with and adapt to these changes. The focus of this course revolves around how TVET will respond to the demands for change so as to incorporate societal issues and introduce and integrate related environmental concepts into the curriculum of TVET programs.

Excerpts from publication.