The world today is facing serious environmental problems caused by multiple factors, but with clear and proven components motivated by human-induced activities and consumption patterns. Greenhouse gas emissions are causing and accelerating climate change and its impact around the world. As VET providers we understand our responsibility to train responsible citizens and future professionals committed to the strategy of the EU Environmental Action Programmes, to make the European Union a competitive economy, through inclusive and sustainable economic growth, promoting resource efficiency, encouraging eco-innovation, waste prevention, re-use of products and a strong low-carbon economy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. CFTrain in VET (Carbon Footprint Training in VET schools) aims to raise awareness and prepare our students so that, as future professionals, they can be competent to actively promote sustainability management models in the companies and have more cohesive and more sustainable lifestyles. Taking this context into account, the main objective of this project is to train future professionals in sustainable skills based on the concept of Carbon Footprint calculation and reduction. This is the starting point to: -Develop a methodology for calculating and reducing the environmental impact of partner institutions in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and waste management -Encourage vocational schools to implement or improve their Environmental Policy within their Management Systems and Social Corporate Responsibility, transferable to other organisations. -Encourage curricula updates regarding low-carbon economic growth. -Provide companies with well-qualified professionals in the field of sustainable development (including social inclusion awareness) and "green skills" Students and staff from 5 VET schools providing different studies and an Environmental Consultancy will take part in this project. Other target groups will be other VET providers, partner companies and educational bodies. The participants are future technicians of Transport and Logistics, Commerce and Marketing, Intern. Trade, IT, Administration, Industry, Automation, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and Mechatronics. One of the school partners is a National Reference Centre on Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency that together with the Environmental Consultancy will give us support and guidance to achieve the objectives. We will also promote social inclusion patterns working on Gender Equality and integrating special needs students in the activities. This partnership brings together very diverse VET specialities and promotes cooperation, peer learning and exchange of experiences at a European level. Main activities: -CF calculation -CF reduction proposals -involving companies -environmental policy design About the methodology used, starting from a common challenge consisting of "reducing the schools´ environmental impact to mitigate the effects of climate change", we will take the different learning outcomes of the different degrees and will present challenges and suggest activities to research and come out with ideas to reduce the CF at schools. Some participating schools are immersed in the PBCL methodology and this project is perfect to develop it: setting a real problem (Carbon Emissions), working on information gathering and sharing, looking for solutions, presenting a final product and evaluating performance. We will also work on Learning and Service Methodology and will have students from the expert school carrying out an energy efficiency study in the applicant school and supporting the other schools in their analysis. We are promoting the use of free-learning tools: Expected results: - development of a common methodology to calculate and reduce the CF of vocational training centres and their associated companies - promote integral systems of environmental management in our organizations - transferability of this project to other schools - cooperation between VET and enterprises resulting in better training of future employees in terms of sustainable development - curriculum updates in terms of "green skills": Integration of concepts such as responsible consumption, sustainable development, circular economy, corporate social responsibility, green economy, eco-innovation..., -the expertise of students and staff in the process of calculating, reducing and offsetting the CF schools and other companies, as a result of this first-hand experience -improvement of energy efficiency in education and vocational training centres. - promotion of social entrepreneurship and active citizenship In the long-term, we aim to achieve: -Reinforcement of internationalisation strategies of the VET schools which can lead to future projects -Curricula updates for future VET students ( green skills) -Availability of products: CF calculation methodology, CF calculator, toolkit, Carpool, Environmental Policy model and SCR assessment.
The CFTrain in VET project has been developed with the purpose of: 1. training students in climate competences in degrees of several professional families taking advantage of the different areas of specialization and including the Special VET groups; 2. facing the Challenge to reduce CO2 emissions in the participating organizations by sharing good practices within and outside the partnership (especially in the collaborating companies). 3. promoting a model of Vocational Training school in which the Environmental Policies are integrated in the Management System, and aligned with Corporate Social Responsibility and the SDGs. The objectives on the basis of which the activities were designed are: - calculation of the Carbon Footprint of all the schools of the association, carried out by the students and teachers. - elaboration of proposals for CO2 reduction in order to move towards climate neutrality - classroom and specialization projects to reinforce green skills - exchange of best practices and cultural exchange - participation and involvement of partner companies - integration of students with educational needs and gender equality - design of environmental policies in the partner schools
The CF Train in VET project adresses the identified need to incorporate technical skills in environmental sustainability in the curricula of any vocational training degrees, and thus contribute to the EU climate objectives by focusing on the future professionals of the partner schools. The innovative aspect of this project lies in the approach used: putting students and teachers at the center of the problem (our schools must reduce their CO2 emissions and achieve climate neutrality) in order to find solutions and develop an action plan. To this end, the concept of calculating the Carbon Footprint has been used as a starting point and different actions have been carried out to become benchmark organizations in terms of environmental sustainability: workshops to calculate the schools' Carbon Footprint, analysis of mobility, analysis of digital emissions, energy audits of buildings and review of their environmental policies. This "pilot experience", in which the students have been the real protagonists, will be the model that these future professionals will replicate in the working world.