Green Youth Employability: Emerging Skills and Jobs for a Fair and Green Society
Connecting youth employment and care for the environment.
Description
The ultimate objective of the project is to structure a learning and guidance pathway for young people based on non-formal education in current and emerging green jobs, focusing on the urgency of action to create a sustainable EU that continues to provide care and quality employment for young people. It seeks to provide adequate training, guidance and support to the youth sector and young people in the green and job transition.
Project Partners
Results
- 1 survey report.
- 1 Toolkit for youth workers with tools and methods to support green skills acquisition among young people based on non-formal education in English and translated into 4 languages.
- 1 massive open online course with at least 4 learning modules, 1 forum for horizontal approach, 1 E-Portfolio space for both reflection and employability tool + E-learning space manual.
- 4 Green Youth Labs.
- 1 Handbook on the Green Youth Labs experiences and good practices.
Phases of the project:
- Kick off meeting in Bologna (Italy).
- Survey report and creation of the toolkit.
- Designing of the massive open online course and training of professional youth workers.
- Green Youth Labs.
- Dissemination of the results and sharing of good practices.
Kick Off Meeting
In January 2024, two technicians from the European Projects department attended the Kick Off Meeting of the new project “Green Youth Employability: Emerging Skills and Jobs for a Fair and Green Society” in Bologna, Italy.
It was a stressful day of meetings to plan and organise this 36-months project based on the employability of young people linked with the need to preserve the environment and natural resources, with the main objective of training young people to get quality jobs that respects the environment. This will be achieved through a survey, a toolkit, an e-learning platform and 4 green youth labs; all made by and for the project.
The meeting was organised in several parts just for organise and plan the different activities that we should do, the budget, the collaborators, etc. The strongest point was sharing our ideas, experiences and techniques to create a unique strategy to achieve our objectives.
We feel very encouraged to work in this project!
Survey
In order to adapt the toolkit and the online training course as much as possible, a survey has been designed to analyse the knowledge and interests of citizens.
On 19 April 2024, a survey dissemination event was held to motivate people to participate, and a flyer with a QR code was designed to encourage people to participate in the survey, while at the same time disseminating the project to reach more people.
At the end of the period to participate in the survey, after almost 200 responses to the survey from a wide variety of age and social groups, we have produced a report with all the results which is available here.
The survey was very revealing and gave us the keys to adapt the toolkit and the online module to the future audience. From the survey report, the most remarkable thing was that people considered environmental issues as a priority and that tackling these issues could create new jobs. You can see the highlights in the images on the left.
From here, the toolkit and online course will be released!
Testing activities with local groups
During the second quarter of 2024, the consortium of organisations involved in this project designed a series of sessions based on the EU GreenComp for the dissemination and acquisition of green competences.
During this quarter, a team of experts from all participating organisations developed 36 non-formal education sessions for the acquisition of these competences. These sessions were not only based on the GreenComp, but also on the needs of young people that we discovered in the survey that was carried out.
To ensure that the toolkit sessions were tailored to the needs and interests of the young people, a series of events were held in July to test the sessions and see how the young people interacted with them.
With all the learning, all the notes and all the suggestions; not only from the young people, but also from the teams of experts and counsellors in each organisation; we will finalise a toolkit that will be available online.
Transnational meeting in Novo Mesto (Slovenia)
On 17 July 2024 the transnational meeting of this project took place in Novo Mesto (Slovenia), at the facilities of our partners GRM Novo Mesto, which was attended by a technician from the European Projects department.
This meeting was based on a series of meetings about different aspects, such as the economic justification of the project, the activities carried out and the actions to come.
The main part of this meeting was to finalise the toolkit on green competences. From the design of the activities and the testing sessions with young people, we finished the English version of the toolkit and started planning the next steps towards the digital module.
The project is moving forward!
Toolkit
The Toolkit on Green Soft Skills is now available!
After months of work, the Green Youth Employability project’s green skills toolkit is now available. The toolkit is addressed to youth workers, educators, professionals, learning specialists, teachers, informal groups or people intending to deliver learning opportunities on green development to be inspired when designing training and learning activities based on non-formal education and soft skills in green development.
The structure of the toolkit is based on the 12 sustainable competencies outlined in the “GreenComp: The European Sustainability Competence Framework” developed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and published by the Publications Office of the European Union in 2022.
For each sustainable competence, the toolkit proposes 3 practical activities, tools and methods based on Non-Formal Education by gathering or adapting already existing ones or proposing new ones.
This toolkit is available in English, Spanish, Italian, Slovakian and Slovenian.
Transnational Meeting on Sustainable Communities
Held in Bologna (November 19-22, 2024), this meeting launched the development of an e-learning platform to guide youth on green jobs and sustainability skills.
Key activities included:
- Deepening understanding of climate challenges, sustainability pillars, and systemic approaches.
- Designing the platform using the ADDIE model, defining target groups, and drafting module outlines.
Outcomes:
- Shared framework for climate action and fair transition.
- Clear tasks, deadlines, and management systems.
- Initial e-learning drafts ready for development.
A crucial step towards empowering youth for green careers and a sustainable future.
Erasmus+ project 2023-1-IT03-KA220-YOU-000157988 “Green Youth Employability: Emerging Skills and Jobs for a Fair and Green Society” has been funded by the European Commission. This document reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.