What does it mean to empower the youth with Green Skills ?

Curricular Improvements: Place Based Learning; Schools And Beyond 2

Being educated is no longer about how much you know, but about having the skills and motivation so that you can learn to assemble new knowledge whenever it is needed. It is time to reduce the content demands of national curricula and encourage schools to focus on helping each pupil develop a personal body of knowledge with skills appropriate for life at work and leisure. It is time to measure school success not just by children’s ability to answer exam questions, but by the extent to which they each demonstrate a unique passion and capability for knowledge based around their own questions and challenges of life beyond school.

It is probably safe to say that a person’s first need for knowledge will be concerned with understanding the local environment through exploring the relationship between buildings, spaces and people. By looking closely at their surroundings young and old can begin to understand how the environment is shaped and managed. In general, environmental management is concerned with understanding the structure and function of Earth as an ecosystem, as well as the ways in which humans relate to it. The environmental crisis of global warming is now the backdrop of work and play; at school and at home. Therefore, a large element of lifelong learning should be concerned with the description and monitoring of environmental changes. The aim is to predict future changes to maximise human benefit and to minimise environmental degradation due to human activities. Characteristically, environmental management is about decision-making and it is especially concerned with the process of decision-making in relation to the use of natural resources, the pollution of habitats and the modification of ecosystems.

Fundamentally, then, environmental management is a political activity because those decisions, about resources, pollution and ecosystems, are never neutral or objective; on the contrary, they are value laden and they reflect the exercise of power by particular groups over others. Moreover, in general, it is naïve to conceive of environmental management as being about simply 'management of the environment' in the sense that humans can manipulate and control the components and processes of Earth as an ecosystem. Of course, humans do exert such influences, but it is a fallacy to think that humans 'manage', for instance, populations of humpback whales. Instead, it is more accurate to say that humans may be able to make some progress towards managing human impacts on humpback whales.

Ultimately, then, conservation management systems are more concerned with controlling human activities and their impacts than with the management of other species. As such it is the thread of lifelong learning that must be at the heart of our efforts to help create a new normal about sustainable living. We need to develop an openness to different ways of knowing and understanding, particularly those associated with indigenous knowledge and belief systems. Lifelong learning creates spaces, physical and imaginative, in which this can happen. It cultivates collaborative, cross-sectoral thinking, and empowers people to become active agents of change in their communities. It raises people’s awareness of different points of view, fosters intergenerational understanding and supports collective action among different groups in society. It’s educational theme is imparting green skills through making curricular improvements.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_management_system_(United_Ki…

World Economic Forum is divulging into this conversation too with a core discussion titled - Upskill for green jobs of the future-.

It would be great to get key conversations running here again! I am looking forward to our ideas as we work towards building our knowledge base.

Serge Claude Eboa Edoube is a Financial Engineering Researcher, Development Finance Analyst, Global Social Impact Consultant and Sustainable Finance Advisor who is passionate about creating a more equitable future for all in line with Sustainable Development Goals.

Most recently, Serge has been volunteering with United Nations as a Development Finance Consultant, Fundraising Manager, Community Development Grants Expert and Proposal Writer. He has developed skills related to writing sustainable development proposals, mapping potential international donors in line with undertaken projects, developing fundraising strategy and providing technical advice on sustainable development projects to unleash transformative social impact around the World.

It is my pleasure to be a part of this outstanding forum

Curricular Improvements: Place Based Learning; Schools And Beyond

Why is it that many employers still report a “skills gap” when looking for talented members of the workforce?

Within a few years of entering the workforce, a gap will be opening up between what you need to know, what has recently been discovered, and what you are being taught while at school. In just a couple of decades, the content of the best libraries in the world has been made available to us through the internet and on mobile devices in a matter of seconds. But, there is an increased awareness that the school systems of today are not preparing children for the jobs of tomorrow. The pace and volume of change means that lifelong learning is no longer an option, but absolutely essential.

To take advantage of lifelong learning opportunities demands certain skills. We need to be motivated to learn, without the constant supervision and support of a teacher. We need to be able to ask questions and relate the knowledge gained to real-life challenges. We need to remain with the challenge even when the work gets hard.

We need to be prepared to try something; fail; adapt; then try again until it works. We need to network with other learners, sometimes virtually, often across cultures. We need to critically analyse and evaluate the content we find in seconds on the Internet, not memorise it with no purpose beyond passing an examination. We need to play creatively with ideas and solutions. Above all we have to understand that lifelong learning does not suddenly begin when you leave school. There is a growing understanding that the gap between the outputs of our education system and the needs of employers are not indicative of a failure in the last few years of formal schooling alone.

The gap is the cumulative consequence of years of education built upon a foundation set down in early childhood. In other words, the problem and the answer appear early on in life. The youngest children have an in-built curiosity to learn and ask questions, to learn through play. When a toddler repeatedly asks “why” or works with other children to create a city using toy building blocks, they are setting down the basic foundations of inquiry-based, personalised learning. They are learning by asking their own questions rather than learning answers to pass examinations, which assess other people’s questions set by institutions. This is why the foundation of lifelong learning is an approach that should begin at the kindergarten, continue through school and pass smoothly into interactions with the workplace and adult society.

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Brookings-Green-Le…