75% of Europeans live and work in cities. The majority of environment challenges are currently originating from urban environments where most organizations, regardless of sector and size, have their office or administration of some kind. It is estimated by independent studies, that cost of wasted resources by typical office can be as high as 4% of turnover. Moreover, it is estimated that 40% of raw materials and resources worldwide are consumed by offices. Therefore, educational methods and efficient techniques for business, educators, learners at all levels for fighting excess consumption in everyday business life is in coherence with EU2020 strategy priorities to move towards a low-carbon economy with a strong emphasis on job creation in the areas of education and employment; and EU Strategy for Sustainable Development emphasizing on a low-carbon, knowledgebased, resource-efficient economy. The project aims to internationally develop and pilot innovative training practices, methodical tools and certification system, designed for adult education sector stakeholders (including disadvantaged groups) that seek to enhance their job market opportunities by pursuing career in promotion of resource and energy saving behavior along with the Green Growth concepts in office environment by exchanging ideas, know-how, experience and good practices. In project’s Office Eco Consultant implementation and activities directly or indirectly will be involved approximately 3943 participants from different Europe regions: Norway, Hungary, Lithuania, Cyprus, and France. There will be involved participants with different profile, such as adult education system, training systems providers, ecologists and more, also interested in project office managers, office workers, unemployed people, people with low working skills, ecology sector experts and more. To reach project’s aims, there will be carried out next key activities: CONTENT ANALYSIS - The principle aim of this key activity is laying a solid foundation for ensuing successful development of the course and the competency recognition system. There will be two output products: Comparative analysis of existing office Eco consultant practices; The specification of a course for an office Eco consultant. COURSE DEVELOPMENT - This key activity aims to develop some of the principal products of the partnership: Eco consultant course syllabus; Office Eco consultant training course; Trainer and trainee manuals for the Eco consultant course and Recognition of knowledge and certification for office Eco consultant. ON-LINE CONTENT DEVELOPMENT - In this key activity on-line components of the new training course for office Eco consultant will be developed. There will be one output product: Development of on-line content. APPLICATION VERIFICATION - The goal of this work package is to field-test the new course, evaluate its effectiveness and make final adjustments to the course contents, if necessary, based on the feedback collected both from participating trainees and trainers. The main characteristics we will adopt and utilize in our development of the Training System are: 1. Unified training system employing a single learning content across the partnership boundaries with integrated certification tools. 2. Modular design: concise and short training modules for higher scheduling flexibility of classes for trainees with different competence backgrounds and work experience and lend a sharper focus in targeting specific competence elements. Modular design will also permit future extensions of the instruction contents when a need for training of new competencies arises. 3. Employing web-based training in combining classroom instruction and e-learning training elements (blended learning concept), which will allow differentiated learning in a classroom, including tools for validation and certification of gained knowledge. In the result of Office Eco Consultant project - to train Office Eco Consultant, who will ensure resource and energy saving behavior in offices. The project is targeted to develop a new non-formal training system for improvement and extending the offer of high quality learning opportunities for adults, who do not have enough skills to establish in the labor market, are unemployed or need to elevate their competences. That training system for adults will include innovative way of validation – a special certificate, common for all EU member states. Prepared by the project Office Eco Consultant Training system will be public available on the internet and in teaching centers, so all EU members will be able to learn it individually or to apply for the prepared training system. The project will be beneficial for all EU member states, as it responds to environmental and economic needs of modern and ecologically safe workplace.
75% of Europeans live and work in cities and most environment challenges are currently originating from urban environments where most organizations, regardless of sector and size, have their offices. Currently, most enterprises and organizations pay too little attention to educating their staff about resource-saving behaviour and eco-friendly work management and/or have no resources and knowledge to do that. Taking into consideration the above-mentioned information, project partners saw a EU-wide need for creation of educational methods for fighting excess consumption in everyday business life as well as creation of efficient techniques for business, educators and learners at all levels. Aiming to act in coherence with EU2020 strategy priorities to move towards a low-carbon economy with a strong emphasis on job creation in the areas of education and employment, project partners took upon themselves the development and piloting of an innovative training practices, methodical tools and certification system, designed for adult education sector stakeholders (including disadvantaged groups) that seek to enhance their job market opportunities by pursuing career in promotion of resource and energy saving behaviour along with the Green Growth concepts in office environment. Project development involved exchanging ideas, know-how, experience and good practices. Throughout the implementation of the “Office Eco Consultant” project, more than 2000 people from different European regions (Norway, Hungary, Lithuania, Germany, France and Poland) were directly and/or indirectly involved. Participants had different educational, professional and/or cultural backgrounds. List of those involved in educational project activities (>70 people) include office managers, office workers, unemployed people, people with low working skills, ecology sector experts, trainers, adult educators and many more. To reach project’s aims, the following key activities were carried out: 1. CONTENT ANALYSIS - The main aim of this activity was to lay a solid foundation for ensuing successful development of the training course and the competency recognition system. Two outputs were developed: Comparative analysis of existing office Eco consultant practices; The specification of training course. 2. COURSE DEVELOPMENT - aimed to develop some of the principal products of the partnership: Office Eco consultant course syllabus; Office Eco consultant training course; Trainer and trainee manuals for the Eco consultant course, self-evaluation and certification for office Eco consultant. 3. ON-LINE CONTENT DEVELOPMENT – development of the on-line components of the new training course for office Eco consultant 4. APPLICATION VERIFICATION – include field-testing (piloting) the new course, evaluation of its effectiveness, making final adjustments to the course contents (based on the feedback collected both from participating trainees and trainers). The main characteristics we adopted and utilized while developing the Training System: 1. Created training system is unified, it employs a single learning content across the partnership boundaries with integrated certification tools. 2. Modular design: concise and short training modules for higher scheduling flexibility important for trainees with different educational backgrounds and work experience. This provides a sharper focus in targeting specific competence elements. Modular design also permits future extensions of the created contents if a need for creation of new parts of the training course arises. 3. Employing web-based training as well as combining classroom instruction with e-training elements (blended learning concept), which allows differentiated learning in the classroom; this also includes various tools for validation and certification of gained knowledge. The main expected result of the Office Eco Consultant project was to create and pilot a training system that can be further used to train office Eco Consultants – specialists that will be qualified to ensure resource and energy saving behaviour in offices. Project consortium was successful in reaching this goal - a new non-formal training system for improvement and extending the offer of high quality learning opportunities has been created and tested and can now be used by adults, who do not have enough skills to establish in the labor market, are unemployed or need to elevate their competences. The created training system also includes a way of validation – a special certificate, that can be obtained by successful completion of the self-evaluation test. Office Eco Consultant Training system is currently freely available on the internet and in teaching centers of partner organization – all potential target groups members from various EU countries are now able to learn individually or to participate in group training whenever they are organized. The content is currently available in 7 EU languages (EN, LT, HU, PL, FR, DE and NO).