Last week, Irish, Italian and Austrian representatives of the European organisations that make up #Me#Us#Now came together at the headquarters of Ikaslan Bizkaia, which is also a member of this transnational project. During this second in-person meeting in Santurtzi, the team shared several activities aimed at both VET students and teaching staff, with a view to implementing said activities in the classroom and raising climate awareness.

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Taking the conclusions of the European project’s first research report into account, which were presented in October last year, Ikaslan Bizkaia and the other participants in #Me#Us#Now (Jugend Am Werk Steiermark and ENTER Network from Austria, Eurocultura from Italy and the Meath Community from Ireland) have designed various activities that aim to work on participants’ awareness of climate in the classroom as well as deepening teaching staff’s knowledge of the Sustainable Development Goals. This research found that 55% of students and 22% of VET teaching staff in the participating countries were unaware of the SDGs set by the United Nations. Those surveyed also expressed an interest in improving their knowledge about the environment and sustainability.

#Me#Us#Now’s objective: to raise awareness of the SDGs among students and teaching staff

Bizkaia’s VET college network led the session as methodologies were shared during the project’s second face-to-face meeting. This involved sharing classroom activities to help raise students’ climate awareness and broaden their knowledge about the SDGs, as well as tasks aimed at teaching staff to help assess and detect possible ways for their college to improve. The European organisations, therefore, shared the activities they had designed and set a time frame for them to be reviewed in time for summer, with the intention of proceeding to a pilot phase and subsequent implementation.

The #Me#Us#Now project falls under the auspices of the Erasmus+ programme, subsidised by the European Union. It aims to foster climate awareness in the VET sector. The partnership of organisations from Spain, Italy, Ireland and Austria plan to continue their joint work until February 2024.