Sustainable Apprentices aims to support VET teachers and in-company trainers to set up apprenticeship programmes creating new Work-Based Learning opportunities to foster the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through digital tools and project-based learning to provide VET students with knowledge on sustainable practices and skills, highly demanded and needed by today’s SMEs.
The private sector is a crucial component of sustainable development, and small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for 99.8% of businesses in Europe and employ 97.74% of the labour force, are a significant aspect of the sustainable transition. Therefore, it is crucial to educate the workforce of the future in the principles of sustainable economy, environmental protection, and inclusion in order to shape the working and business culture of the next generation with less than ten years left to achieve the 17 (SDGs) established by the UN Agenda 2030.
Training the workforce of the future to apply the SDGs in SMEs through Work-Based Learning in Apprenticeship programmes
Sustainable Apprentices aims to be the transmission belt between the labour market and VET by creating work-based learning opportunities through apprenticeships aligned to the new economic challenges, and new businesses demands for more sustainable working methods and competences. The concrete OBJECTIVES are:
In order to achieve these objectives, the project will develop structured set of competencies based on EU standards and methods in supporting Apprenticeship programmes to implement the SDGs in SMEs, an ICT-based educative instrument to upskill VET educators and in-company trainers in implementing the SDGs in SMEs through Apprenticeship programmes, including a Digital Database, Theoretical and Pedagogical Basis, and a Blended learning course and a Methodological Framework to facilitate transferability and replicability of the project results in other European and international VET providers and SMEs.
The project will engage VET students through project-based learning, developing cross-cutting sustainability competencies, getting familiar with the SDGs through gamification and being able to choose their preferred sustainable domain to develop a project applied to their field of work. This will produce specific cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioural learning outcomes that will enable this working force of the future to deal with the challenges of each SDG in their working environments and personal lives, and, therefore, supporting their achievement by 2030.
Sustainable Apprentices is addressed to VET educators and in-company trainers, as target users, and to VET students and SMEs, as target beneficiaries.
