The acronym ThreeC project stands for: Creating Competences for a Circular Economy. The project ThreeC aims at integrating the concept of the Circular Economy as an attractive new learning field in European school education. The “Circular Economy” refers to the concept of saving natural resources and to reuse and recycle them. It is a more profound approach than the solely technical (end-of pipe) concepts of waste management sector (like the German Kreislaufwirtschaft) and focuses on the active participation and capacity building of citizens. It is an increasingly relevant, popular and attractive theme that is being boosted by major economic, ecological and political stakeolders worldwide . Young people need to acquire skills to be able to contribute to and work in a circular economy. Participants There is a vital synergy of projects and experiences. The lead partner, Landkreis Kassel(1) is a regional authority which has been active in environmental protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation and in the circular economy since several decades. BUPNET (2)has been developing full time qualifications for waste managers in the circular economy (DE. Kreislauwirtschaft) since 1985. It is founding member of REVEAL, the European network for promoting and validating informal learning and it’s unique validation system LEVEL5. It developed a holistic learning and competence validation system in EDUCCKATE, a knowledge alliance for student entrepreneurs in the creative and cultural sector and in GREEEN, a Comenius network on sustainable and climate friendly development. Tallinn University(3). Centre for Educational Technology (CET, established in 1998) is a department within TLU’s Institute of Informatics, being one of the leading R&D centres in the field of eLearning within Baltic countries. It is part of the EMMA (European Multiple MOOC Aggregator )project. Euneos (4)has been involved in European projects, organisation of KA1 courses and international networking since 2005. Fontys(5) Many of staff members are involved in the development of curriculum development for secondary schools in the Netherlands. The TTI has an extended network of secondary schools where students are trained to be as a teacher. Sint-Lambertus 4 (6) has experience with European projects since 2000: LLP Comenius and Vetpro. The school has general education, technical and vocational training. IES Las Indias (7)is very much oriented to international projects since 2010. The school has an extented network of companies for internships. Last but not least there is the Universidade portucalense infante d. henrique porto (8). This institution has a network of schools and companies. Objectives of the project, activities, methodology and results 1. To give an overview of the EU approaches to teach and learn about circular economy and requirements from the practice (Intellectual output Stocktaking ) To design, to develop, implement and evaluate 2. To describe set of competences for circular economy content related and contextualised/practice-oriented linked to the reference systems (3 dimensions and 5 levels) of the LEVEL5 validation system 3. To develop a didactical approach with teaching and assessment strategies to enable teachers to teach their pupils skills in the context of a circular economy (general education) 4. To create so called In-formal (or non-formal) learning patterns (for informal learning settings internships) : a catalogue of situations and settings in which competences or competence dimensions can be developed 5. Setting up an assessment and validation toolbox for these informal/non-formal learning situations: ThreeC-assesment tool. 6. Creating an interactive and holistic learning environment for internships with learning guidelines and links to the assessment environment 7. Providing learning resources for teachers and educational staff a Developing a MOOC (2 x 2 hours) b. Developing a Training module for teachers (blended learning) c. Developing a format of a KA1 Erasmus course d. Creating a format on a boot camp programme for teachers and internships on circular economy (during the multiplier event) 8. A proposal of a post-graduation or similar academic degree on competences for a circular economy degree with teachers as target group Impact and long term benefits Mainstreaming potential and national strategy to transfer the results to appropriate decision-makers depends much on the flexibility of the national educational systems and the autonomy of educational institutes. The availability of the project's materials beyond the project lifetime and the visibility for policy makers, other teachers and school managers. Euneos ( Leader dissemination and exploitation) will ensure that all products are available on the website at least till 2020 and that the on line ThreeC tool is downloadable at least till 2021.
The project THREE C has aimed at integrating the concept of the Circular Economy as an attractive new learning field in European school education. The “Circular Economy” refers to the concept of saving natural resources and to reuse and recycle them. It is a more profound approach than the solely technical (end-of pipe) concepts of waste management sector (like the German Kreislaufwirtschaft) and focuses on the active participation and capacity building of citizens. It is an increasingly relevant, popular and attractive theme that is being boosted by major economic, ecological and political stakeholders worldwide. Young people need to acquire skills to be able to contribute to and work in a circular economy. In the THREE C project 8 project partners from 7 EU member states collaborated in a multi-stakeholder partnership: The lead partner, Landkreis Kassel(1) is a regional authority which has been active in environmental protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation and in the circular economy since several decades. Q21 (2) has been developing full time qualifications in environmental and climate change management. It is member of REVEAL, the European network for promoting and validating informal learning and it’s unique competence oriented learning and validation system Tallinn University(3). Centre for Educational Technology (CET, established in 1998) is a department within TLU’s Institute of Informatics, being one of the leading R&D centres in the field of eLearning within Baltic countries. It is part of the EMMA (European Multiple MOOC Aggregator )project. Euneos (4)has been involved in European projects, organisation of KA1 courses and international networking since 2005. Fontys(5) is one of the leading teachers’ training institutes in the Netherlands and developed, together with Q21 the holistic didactic and validation approach Sint-Lambertus 4 (6) has experience with European projects since 2000: LLP Comenius and Vetpro. The school has general education, technical and vocational training. IES Las Indias (7)is very much oriented to international projects since 2010. The school has an extented network of companies for internships. Universidade portucalense infante d. henrique porto (8). This institution has a network of schools and companies and promoted the THREE C MOOC and post graduate course. Results and impact attained THREE C achieved the following results: • A framework of competences related to circular economy was set up. The competences were thoroughly described and converted in so called reference systems (3 competence dimensions (knowledge, skills and attitudes and 5 competence levels), based on the LEVEL5 holistic competence oriented learning and validation approach. • A didactical approach with teaching and assessment strategies was developed to enable teachers to teach their pupils skills in the context of a circular economy and to equip this approach with a inventories (growing catalogues) for informal learning and assessment methods) • A competence oriented assessment and validation approach was set up including a catalogue of suitable assessment methods and a link to a THREE C-validation tool. • An interactive and holistic learning environment for teachers that receive training on THREE C (on how to teach Circular Economy) was developed including practical projects on competence based learning in internships (guidelines) and links to the validation environment • Diverse learning resources for teachers and educational staff were developed including o A MOOC on how to teach Circular Economy o A Training module for teachers (blended learning), which was piloted with 20 teachers o A KA1 Erasmus course concept was derived from the pilot course • An active conferencing format programme for teachers on circular economy was developed and delivered during the multiplier event. • A proposal of a post-graduation course with an academic degree (ECTS) on competences for a circular economy degree with teachers as target group was developed, approved by the scientific board of the PT University Long term benefits The project team intensively disseminated and valorised the THREE C concept. The course has been officially accredited in the German state of Hesse which makes it an official CPD for teachers. The THREE approach has been introduced as officially accepted concept in 3 teacher training centres in the Netherlands. A master course will be developed in the FONTYS University in 2017. The THREE C community has become part of the European REVEAL network which cares for the maintenance of the connected learning technologies and supports the marketing and distribution of the project products such as the KA1 course and the Post Graduate Course. The availability of the project's materials beyond the project lifetime and the visibility for policy makers, other teachers and school managers is secured both by the project website (www.threec.eu) and the e-Learning platform (threec.my-VITA.eu).