Academics Roundtable Discussion on Green Skills for Sustainable Future

On 30th March 2024, Independent University Bangladesh (IUB) hosted a roundtable discussion 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 the European Union. 

Twelve academics from ULAB, IUB, BRAC JPGSPH, and BRACU joined the discussion.

 

Two main questions were discussed: 

​

1. What are the necessary green skills and green jobs that should be included in developing curriculum for the future?

2. How do we teach environmental awareness to students, more specifically the fresh graduates from any major? What would be the best way to teach?

​

Academics emphasized on the need for soft skills like empathy, communication, and topics like circular economy, cycle analysis, climate change mitigation, environmental laws, and analytical knowledge should be included in developing the Green Skills curriculum. The learning should also be collaborative where academics and industrialists come together to impart practical relevant knowledge. Furthermore, these skills are not just for “Green Jobs”, it is needed across all sectors so the course design should also incorporate intersectionality to show how gender, and economic background seeps into the domain of climate change. Lastly, the aim is to instill the knowledge of sustainable practices, and highlight real life examples of good practices so students can incorporate the learning into their work life. 

​

After a short recess, academics joined again to discuss what would be the effective way to teach about environmental awareness. Several key concepts arose from this exchange. The teaching method needs to be personalized, where students can observe and engage in issues related to climate change. To facilitate engagement, institutions can arrange collaborative field programs for students to go beyond classroom learning. Participatory learning should be encouraged so that the students can come up with their own case works where they highlight the issues faced by the communities instead of the facilitators providing case studies. This way there will be two-way learning, and classrooms will be interactive. Furthermore, facilitators can focus on using storytelling to teach course materials, or use tools like Empathy Mapping where they will learn the soft skills. The idea of this session was to not limit the curricula within the present situation but put in the seeds to grow in the long term. There is a need for government support and demand for sustainable services so that graduates can apply their green skills in real life.