Green skills for a sustainable future

Highlights and testimonies from a reflexive workshop on green skills for a sustainable future which took place on the 24th of February 2024 at Independent University, Bangladesh.

On 24th of the February month of 2024, a reflexive workshop was organised by Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) on Green Skills for Sustainable Future in collaboration with BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health (JPGSPH) and University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) as a part of the ACCESS4ALL (Adapting Climate Education, Skill, and Sustainability for advancing locally-led Solutions) ERASMUS+ CBHE (Capacity Building for Higher Education) Project funded by European Union.

Partner institutes in the project are BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), and 2 European partners – University of Maastricht (UM) and University of Heidelberg (UH). ACCESS4ALL is a pioneering consortium aimed to shift the discourse on curriculum development for climate change and create blended practice courses for students and professionals in order to address the gaps between higher education learning and employability in Bangladesh. All the partner institutes were present in the workshop.

The workshop started with an introductory session and the expected outcomes of the workshop and icebreaking session followed by participants introduction by Dr. K. A. Rabbani, Head of the Department of Environmental Science, School of Environmental Science and Management at Independent University, Bangladesh. Then the workshop proceeded by a presentation of the project’s introduction and the overview of workshop’s purpose and agenda by Ishrat Jahan, Research Fellow at BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University to set the context of the workshop. The next session was conducted by Dr. Rumana Sultana, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Science and Management, School of Environment & Life Sciences at Independent University, Bangladesh on green skills in the context of Bangladesh and explained participants what are the next steps of the workshop in the upcoming session. After Dr. Rumana Sultana presented her part, the scheduled tea break started After that, the students focused session started.

This reflexive workshop was organized with the students to map out the needed green skills that they think is required to take part in a green transition. There were almost 25 student participants from different public and private universities of different streams. The aim was to map out the skills based on their need and ideas that would help them to be prepared to get into jobs in a changing time and make them more eligible and capable for future. Students attended the workshop shared their insights and ideas on five different themes on Green Skills from five different tables. The themes are Basic Climate Science - What are the current situations and challenges in the job market, Adopting Southern Led Solutions, Climate Action, Gender, Intersectionality, and Social Inclusion and Anticipate and overcome climate uncertainties

Each theme had three specific questions to know from the students:

Gaps experienced in working on CC issues
What skills and knowledge are needed?
How can they be learned?

In each table, there was a facilitator and a note taker. The tables were suggested to work on the first two questions for 30 minutes and on the last one for 15 minutes. The facilitators had a moderated discussion with students on future green job prospects and the role of environmental sustainability in their career. The first 30 minutes went on mapping out the knowledge gaps to identify key learning priorities and the next half an hour on mapping out the needed skills focusing on the skill gaps. The mapping of the skill gaps was suggested in three areas:

Skills for green jobs and circular economy
Soft skills and managerial skills (skills that overlap)
Skills for transformative adaptation and championing locally led solutions/actions

The discussion brought up green skills needed for a green transition focusing on the soft skills so that they can also be appropriate for the future. The facilitators learnt from the students and assisted the students to brainstorm on the knowledge gaps and mapping the skills for locally led solutions. After the discussion, each table presented their brainstorming session which resulted into listing down the skills needed. Each group got 5-10 minutes to present. It was an interactive session where the knowledge disseminated.

After the presentation of the groups, Dr. Rabbani summarized the whole session and delivered his concluding remarks. After that the photo and networking session started. And everyone went for their lunch. And that’s how the session ended with enriched knowledge on skills that are needed for designing the curricula.

The curriculum we are planning to design will advance the existing traditional method of designing. Here we asked students their needs and we would design according to their needs. We would also have workshops with different organizations like NGOs, INGOs, Garments, Tech Companies, Energy Companies to understand knowledge gaps and map out skills needed for both student-level and professional levels.