What are the personal Green skills? How to empower our students to develop them during their studies? What is the educators’ role in fostering personal development of students in higher education?

These and many more questions were discussed during the Train the trainer event which is part of the Erasmus+ project “Personal Green Skills in Higher Education” (PeGSinHE) (No. 2023-1-LT01-KA220-HED-000160132). Training event was organized 3–5 December 2024 by one of project partners University College for Agricultural and Environmental Education in Vienna (Austria).

The project sees personal Green skills as one of the key factors in fighting against climate change. There is no doubt that the higher education sector has a very important role to play in tackling the climate crisis. In the transition towards a green economy and sustainable development, higher education institutions should promote a new paradigm in which value orientations are complemented by the development of green skills. Personal values and attitudes, which are reflected in each individual’s green mindset, are the fundamental basis for green skills development.

The training event was based on the agreement of the partners that these are key issues and on situation analysis developed and published by project consortium. Sustainability at HEIs: Mapping Good Practice is open source publication and could be accessed here.

Kauno kolegija was represented at the event by lecturers from four faculties: Ieva Trepkuvienė from Faculty of Medicine, Povilas Beseckas and Inga Mikutavičienė from Faculty of Arts and Education, Ernesta Trečiokienė from Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Technologies, Irma Juodienė from Faculty of Business.  This interdisciplinary approach was planned as a part of learning process as sharing of different perspectives and experience was important and really interesting part of the training. Lecturers will organize the dissemination event at Kauno kolegija in the beginning of 2025 but more importantly, some of the methods that were experienced during the training are being incorporated into the study process already. Lets’ hope it will support the personal growth of our students and empower them to be active actors of better future.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the National Agency. Neither the European Union nor National Agency can be held responsible for them.