Understand sustainability as an interconnected educational field
Explain how environmental, social, economic and civic dimensions of sustainability influence one another and affect educational and organisational contexts.
Erasmus+ teacher training course
From Global Plans to Local Action
How can global sustainability commitments become relevant to everyday learning, organisational choices and community life?
Turn complex sustainability challenges into relevant learning, informed dialogue and achievable local action.
Target group: Teachers, adult educators, school leaders, trainers, public-service professionals and other education professionals from all educational levels.
- Activity type
- Physical mobility
- Duration
- 1 week
- Language
- English
- Equipment
- No special equipment required
Turning Global Sustainability Plans into Local Educational Action
Global sustainability frameworks can appear distant from the everyday decisions made in schools, organisations and communities. This course helps educators connect international goals with observable local realities, encouraging learners to investigate relationships among environmental conditions, social wellbeing, resources, participation and institutional choices. Sustainability is approached as a complex field for inquiry and responsible action rather than a list of goals to memorise.
Participants work with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, European sustainability competences and principles of education for sustainable development. They examine evidence, compare perspectives, map stakeholders and investigate how one issue can create different consequences for different groups. Activities show how educators can address serious global challenges without oversimplification, fear-based messages or placing unrealistic responsibility on individual learners.
Participants apply the week’s learning by creating a locally relevant learning-and-action plan with a clear educational purpose, appropriate partners and a manageable method for reviewing progress and impact.
The programme and all Understanding Academy activities and resources are independently developed and do not represent an official United Nations programme.
Learning outcomes
What You Will Learn
Connect global frameworks with local realities
Relate selected sustainability goals and competences to concrete needs, experiences and priorities in a school, organisation or community.
Investigate issues using evidence and multiple perspectives
Use local information, stakeholder knowledge and critical questions to examine a sustainability challenge without reducing it to a simple answer.
Design inclusive learning for sustainability
Create an adaptable educational activity that supports participation, critical reflection, dialogue and learner agency.
Develop realistic and responsible action
Prepare an achievable local initiative with appropriate roles, partnerships, safeguards and a practical method for reviewing progress.
Six-day programme
Course Schedule
Day 1Understanding Sustainability in Context
Welcome and context exchange
Participants introduce their professional settings, identify their learning priorities and share sustainability questions currently affecting their schools, organisations or communities.
Seeing connections rather than isolated problems
Participants explore how environmental, social, economic and civic factors interact and consider why apparently simple sustainability problems may have multiple causes and consequences.
From global commitments to local questions
Participants examine how international sustainability frameworks can be used as reference points while keeping local needs, experiences and priorities at the centre.
Day 2Places, People and Evidence
Reading the local environment
Participants identify visible and less visible sustainability issues connected to their surroundings, institutional practices and community life.
Working with information critically
Participants compare different forms of evidence, distinguish claims from supported conclusions and consider what information may be missing.
Framing an inquiry
Participants develop a focused and manageable question that can guide meaningful learning or organisational reflection.
Day 3Participation, Responsibility and Different Perspectives
Who experiences the issue and how?
Participants explore how the same sustainability challenge may affect learners, families, staff members, public services and community groups differently.
Individual choices and wider systems
Participants examine the relationship between personal behaviour, institutional structures, public policy, access to resources and collective responsibility.
Dialogue across differences
Participants practise facilitating discussions in which different priorities, values and constraints can be expressed without forcing immediate agreement.
Day 4Learning That Supports Agency
From awareness to meaningful participation
Participants consider how sustainability education can move beyond information and guilt towards curiosity, capability, shared responsibility and realistic possibilities for action.
Designing an educational response
Participants create a learning activity that connects curriculum or professional learning with a relevant local sustainability question.
Inclusion and accessibility
Participants adapt their design for different language levels, backgrounds, abilities, confidence levels and opportunities for participation.
Day 5Local Action and Partnership Design
Choosing an achievable focus
Participants define an action that is proportionate to their role, resources, timeframe and educational purpose.
Mapping people, roles and relationships
Participants identify learners, colleagues, community members and organisations who may contribute knowledge, support implementation or be affected by the proposed action.
Anticipating consequences and improving the plan
Participants consider practical barriers, unequal impacts, unintended consequences and ways to make their initiative more responsible and feasible.
Day 6Course Closure & Cultural Activities
- Reflecting on learning outcomes and key takeaways
- Awarding of Certificates of Attendance
- Cultural excursion and local heritage experience
- Informal networking and exchange of best practices
Course foundations
Recommended Reading and Theoretical Influences
- United Nations (2015). Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
- UNESCO (2020). Education for Sustainable Development: A Roadmap.
- European Commission Joint Research Centre (2022). GreenComp: The European Sustainability Competence Framework.
- OECD (2019). OECD Learning Compass 2030.
- UNESCO (2017). Education for Sustainable Development Goals: Learning Objectives. These publications are recommended conceptual references. Official United Nations and institutional logos, icons, graphics and branded teaching materials are not reproduced or distributed as Understanding Academy resources.
Completing the course
Evaluation, Recognition and Practical Information
Learning is supported throughout the week through participation, reflection, practical activities and constructive feedback.
Evaluation of Learning Outcomes
- Format
- Continuous assessment based on class participation, practical work and self-assessment.
- Criteria
- Active participation in discussions, reflection, collaborative activities and practical course tasks.
- Procedures
- Trainer observation, participant reflection, feedback and attendance.
Recognition of Learning Outcomes
- Conditions
- Attendance at a minimum of 80% of the course and active participation in the learning activities.
- Recognition
- Learning outcomes are recognised through participant reflection, trainer feedback and completion of the course activities.
- Documentation
- A Certificate of Attendance documenting the course title, dates, venue and learning outcomes.
Learning approach
Practical, Collaborative and Learner-Centred
The course combines hands-on workshops, real-world examples, simulations, guided reflection and collaborative activities. Participants exchange good practices, work in international groups and develop ideas that can be adapted to their own professional context.
Optional cultural, social and networking activities support local engagement, intercultural learning and professional collaboration.
Before you travel
Practical Details
Duration
One week, normally comprising 25 academic hours.
Weekly Schedule
Classes take place from Monday to Friday, in the morning or afternoon. Saturday is reserved for cultural activities.
Final Timetable
The detailed timetable will be sent at least two weeks before the beginning of the course.
Preparation
No special preparation is required unless stated in the course programme. Any required materials or equipment will be communicated before the course.
Certification
Participants who meet the attendance requirements receive a Certificate of Attendance.
Course Fee
The standard fee is €480. See what the course fee includes.
Alternative arrangements: Other course durations and schedules may be arranged on request.
Erasmus+ funding: Course fees and mobility costs may be supported through an eligible sending organisation's Erasmus+ grant. Eligibility and final funding decisions remain with the beneficiary organisation and its National Agency. Read our Erasmus+ KA1 funding guide.
Administrative support: Understanding Academy provides course programmes, learning outcomes, registration documentation and certificates. Participants and sending organisations remain responsible for transport, accommodation and grant management.
Plan your Erasmus+ mobility
Ready to Join This Course?
Check the upcoming confirmed dates or register your interest. We will contact you with information about availability and the next steps.
Need funding information? Read our Erasmus+ KA1 funding guide.