Training of trainers on Green Skills
WWF Portugal
Reference Teacher: Cátia Nunes
Teacher(s): Madalena Lopes and Cátia Nunes
This course is designed to equip trainers with the knowledge, skills, and methodologies needed to develop green skills in their learners. It provides an overview of sustainable development, environmental challenges, active citizenship, and Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), as well as strategies for stakeholder engagement and practical implementation. The main aim is to enable trainers to guide participants in ideating and designing innovative sustainable tools and solutions, particularly within the underwater technologies sector, and to support learners in applying green skills to real-world challenges.
Adaptable based on participants’ prior knowledge, learning pace, and specific training needs.
Trainers will develop a solid understanding of major environmental challenges and the role of green skills in addressing them, as well as pedagogical approaches to effectively teach these concepts to learners.
Trainers will acquire the knowledge and methodological tools needed to guide learners in applying sustainability principles and green thinking to design and implement Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for real-world challenges.
Trainers will develop the capacity to facilitate critical thinking and ethical reflection among learners, enabling them to assess the environmental, social, and economic implications of environmental decisions and policies.
Trainers will strengthen their ability to coach and support learners in communicating Nature-Based Solutions effectively, highlighting the environmental, economic, and societal benefits of green skills through structured presentations and collaborative activities.
Trainers will enhance their competence in fostering reflective learning environments, using self-assessment tools, feedback strategies, and continuous improvement methodologies to support learners’ development of green skills.
The course focuses on lifelong learning education. It’s not essential but a previous knowledge on nature sciences can be helpful for an easier understanding of the contents of the course.
Handbook (online)
N/A
Additional information that may be useful to better describe the course
This course contributes to SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities), SDG 13 (climate action), SDG 14 (Life below water) and SGD 17 (Partnerships for the goals).
If you are interested in developing one, or more of these modules, please reach out to Cátia Nunes (cnunes@wwf.pt) or Madalena Lopes (mlopes@wwf.pt).
Course modules include:
– United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
– UNESCO Key competencies on Education for Sustainable Development: UNESCO identifies key competencies necessary for sustainable development, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaborative skills. These competencies aim to empower individuals to contribute to sustainable development by promoting responsible actions and decisions.
– Green skills concept
– Global Trends and skills development: The demand for green skills is increasing globally as industries and economies shift towards more sustainable practices.
– Lifelong learning skills: Hard skills and soft skills
– Green skills relevance for UW technologies: Concept (Designing sustainable UW technologies); Manufacturing (Producing these technologies with minimal environmental impact); Use (Operating UW technologies in an eco-friendly manner) and Discarding (Proper disposal or recycling of UW technologies to minimize environmental harm).
– Climate change, what is happening to people & planet: Compromising nature compromises the people. Climate change threatens human health directly – by changing the weather, altering the distribution of vector-borne and other infectious diseases, and worsening air pollution – and indirectly – by causing undernutrition, harder working conditions, and mental stress.
– Main drivers for climate change: energy, industry, land use, transportation and buildings.
– Marine ecosystems environmental challenges: Climate Change, Pollution, Invasive Species, Overharvesting and Habitat Loss.
– Overview of ecosystems services: The identification of environmental services in a participatory manner can assist in the making of responsible decisions based on prior knowledge of the likely impacts on natural capital and social wellbeing.
– Water and land main uses: resources
– Under water main uses: resources
– What are the main threats and impacts for nature & people?
– How can these resources be managed in a responsible way?
– Best practices in UW techs to minimize impacts: Material Selection; Energy Efficiency; Minimal Disturbance; Green Manufacturing Processes; Waste Management; Supply Chain Management; Training and Education; Monitoring and Maintenance; Operational Guidelines; Recycling Programs:; Safe Disposal Methods; Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR); Remote Sensing and Monitoring; Automated Systems; Regulatory Compliance; Stakeholder Engagement; Continuous Improvement; UW mapping technologies for biodiversity conservation and habitat protection.
– Natured based solution focusing on technology.
– UW technologies approaches for nature-based solutions.
– Food for tough: are we including people and communities in nature-based solutions?
– Collaboration: Community engagement, why is it important? Community engagement is crucial because it fosters trust, improves decision-making and ensures that the needs and perspectives of the community are not overviewed..
– Stakeholders: Identifying and mapping
– Engagement; Different strategies and approaches to engage with communities and stakeholders
– Good practices – examples
– Active citizenship definition and examples (students are asked to fill the figure below with actions they already perform).
– Affective citizenship definition and examples.
– Capacity building for individual and community empowerment: different approaches and methodologies: Bottom up and top-down approaches; ladder of involvement.
– Connecting active and affective citizenship with nature protection and UW technologies
– What is project management and why is it important?
– Building an action, project, or program. What does it take? Focus on the different steps: Ideation, conception, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and celebration.
– Theory of change and SMART goals: Learning how to use templates for the SMART goals development process.
– Design thinking and behavior change. Using the COM-B model: The COM-B model for behavior change cites capability (C), opportunity (O), and motivation (M) as three key factors capable of changing behavior (B).
– Leadership approaches.
– Applying design thinking and all the knowledge and skills developed during the course to create a sustainable UW technology solution to mitigate an environmental challenge
– By design, NbS for climate mitigation interventions seek to address three intertwined global crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and inequitable development.
– They simultaneously prioritize the improvement of livelihoods and human well-being, the protection and enhancement of nature, and the generation of carbon reductions or removals – and the solutions will only be effective and sustainable in the long term if the three are addressed together. NbS for climate mitigation interventions must build broad, multi-stakeholder support, with inclusive consultation from the design stage through to implementation and action.
– How: Design for multiple benefits; Involve local communities; Institute environmental and social safeguards and focus on preventing nature loss.
- Cooley, S., D. Schoeman, L. Bopp, P. Boyd, S. Donner, D.Y. Ghebrehiwet, S.-I. Ito, W. Kiessling, P. Martinetto, E. Ojea, M.-F. Racault, B. Rost, and M. Skern-Mauritzen, 2022: Oceans and Coastal Ecosystems and Their Services. In: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, M. Tignor, E.S. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Craig, S. Langsdorf, S. Löschke, V. Möller, A. Okem, B. Rama (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, pp. 379–550, doi:10.1017/9781009325844.005.
- IUCN (2020). Guidance for using the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions, First edition. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.
- WWF (2022) Living Planet Report 2022 – Building a nature positive society. Almond, R.E.A., Grooten, M., Juffe Bignoli,D. & Petersen, T. (Eds). WWF, Gland, Switzerland.
- WWF (2023) A Behaviour Change Toolkit [online: https://sites.google.com/wwf.panda.org/wwfbehaviourchange/home]