Description
Voru County Vocational Training Centre in collaboration with the Norwegian Etterstad Videregaaende Skole is planning a project in which themes like environment and sustainable development are associated to the national curriculum. Vocational and upper secondary schools pay little attention to the environmental awareness in their subjects. Various events are organized, but there is no systematic and continuous integration of sustainability. This in turn is caused by the fact that there are no teaching and study materials. The partner schools will exchange experience and knowledge, prepare different materials, hold project meetings, organize different seminars and workshops. The result of this is increase in participants’ knowledge and skills, teaching materials. The created instructional materials can also be used by other schools in Estonia and Norway. The project is opportunity to exchange knowledge and skills of the partners. Green thinking is going to be a part of our lives.
Summary of project results
The school is a place where students have to get the knowledge of sustainable development. Environment and sustainable development topics should be integrated into many subjects at school. Integration, however, depends on the school and the teacher's readiness and ability. Therefore it is important to organize training for the teachers, exchange experience with the neighbouring countries and prepare the educational materials on sustainability. On the other hand the reason for starting a project was to promote entrepreneurship among students. Therefore the aim of the project was also to start student-companies at school (manufacturing products from recycled materials). The project focused on three main objectives: 1. To start at least one student enterprise in each school 2. To integrate environmentalism into vocational education 3. Sharing experiences During the project student enterprises were established and put into practice in each school. The student enterprise of VCVTC produced wooden products. The student enterprise of EVS sold coal-filtered water bottles. To promote recycling, several workshops took place during the project. The teachers attended trainings on environmental awareness and entrepreneurship. The teachers have decided to become more environmental-friendly by reusing their materials, printing less and saving electricity. Different fairs took place in schools, where the local community as well as school students were involved. Several training materials and some manuals were created during the project. These materials are available on the project website:
http://www.vkhk.ee/projektid/loppenud_proj/2013/11/projekt-designing-en…
Summary of bilateral results
The Norwegian partner has followed the example of Estonians’ consistency, so next schoolyear new student enterprises will be started. Since the project participants have seen good examples of everyday recycling in Estonia, they want to promote it more in Norway too. A new project named “From the idea to the realization” will be started in Võrumaa Vocational Training Centre. Although a few contradictions occurred between the partners, the relationship has strengthened and future plans have been discussed. The partners together have in mind to apply for funding for various co-operation and mobility projects. Also both schools are participating in an international program about non-formal learning.