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Our Community of Practice Training in Finland

In the first week of November, our Community of Practice travelled to the city of Espoo in Finland for a three-day workshop filled with activities that would ultimately get the participating teams ready to create an action plan for their VET schools. The GreenVET workshops took place on November 5- 6 -7 and aimed at engaging participants in sustainable development practices within vocational education. The training took place in the facilities of Omnia Education Partnerships (OEP) who proved themselves to be warm and welcoming hosts to the 13 VET schools which travelled from Germany, Latvia, Slovenia, Italy, Cyprus, Greece and Egypt.

On November 5, the workshop opened with a warm-up exercise where participants formed small groups to discuss their organization’s commitment to sustainability. A central focus was on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with group discussions highlighting the most challenging SDGs and sharing examples of implementation obstacles. Later, a speaker from Finland’s National Agency for Education gave a presentation on how Finnish vocational education aligns with the SDGs. The day concluded with an SDG marketplace where participants explored the connection between specific SDGs and vocational training.

On November 6, the activities began with guest speakers from Omnia and the City of Espoo discussing best practices in sustainability which was then followed by a workshop led on the meaning and functionality of the Whole Institution Approach to sustainability. In this interactive session, participants identified SDGs associated with various best practices and worked in teams to relate these to their own educational institutions. The day ended with a brainstorming session on institutional management and sustainability practices, with groups creating templates to capture their ideas. In addition, the participants took a tour around some of the workshop facilities of OEP, getting a firsthand look at sustainability practices that are applied and are deeply rooted in the school’s operations and teachings.

Our final workshop day, November 7th, began with a group exercise in which the participants put their feelings of the two previous days in drawing. Everyone contributed with a variety of sentiments, which goes to show how diverse our Community of Practice is and how impactful the training was. Participants then worked with their institution members to create SDG-aligned action plans using a structured template. Supported by each country’s project members, they outlined steps, timelines, and roles. After lunch, each VET team presented their action plan to a similarly aligned one, detailing key steps, expected challenges, and potential impacts and exchanging feedback to better organize their final plans. The day concluded with a wrap-up session on next steps, emphasizing the need to implement these action plans in their institutions and continue with follow-up workshops and before everyone left, we raised a glass to the connections we made and to the bright green future ahead.

These workshops provided valuable insights and actionable plans for incorporating SDGs into vocational training, fostering collaboration, and building momentum for GreenVET’s sustainability goals. But most importantly, they provided a breeding ground for collaboration among several VET schools all over Europe. We collectively thank our gracious hosts in Espoo, Omnia Education Partnerships, and we look forward to our project’s next steps and online workshops.