With the EU Green Deal Industrial Plan but also progress on adapting proposals of the Fit for 55 package, we expect an emphasis on strengthening the EU’s competitiveness for the jobs of the future. There is a strong role for education for sustainable development in providing the skills and knowledge to address and tackle the climate crisis but also in innovating new ways of organising the economy and society. While education is not an EU competence, the Council Recommendation on Learning for the Green Transition and Sustainable Development from June 2022 provides clear guidance to Member States. 2023 and 2024 provide the first chance to authentically implement the Council Recommendation on a federal/national level. However, it is crucial that young people are involved and empowered to participate in discussions around changes in the educational system and to directly link them to their policy makers while continuing to put pressure on an EU level to accelerate the education transition and link it with other developments such as the digital education transition.

Aims:

• Monitor and facilitate youth engagement in the implementation of the Council Recommendation on Learning for the Green Transition across Member States.
• Advocate for mainstreaming education for sustainable development – and with that inherently transformative education – in the Working Groups relevant for youth under the European Education Area.

Policies addressed:

Council Recommendation on Learning for the Green Transition and Sustainable Development

Deliverables:

• Organise at least 2 regional platforms with youth, and national policy makers to monitor the implementation of the Council Recommendation.
• Support the organisation of the Council Presidency Youth Dialogue with the Swedish and/or Spanish Presidency on implementation of the Council Recommendation.
• Advocate towards the members of the Working Groups under the European Education Area of the European Commission for stronger inclusion of youth voices in the education system and putting transformative education on their agenda.
• Engage with and in the work of the European Economic and Social Committee to mainstream education for sustainable development further into EU policies.

To tackle the complexity of climate issues, there is a need to build capacity in organisations to better align their strategies and actions to a 1.5° conform pathway. To increase momentum towards a societal transformation there is a need for organisations to not only recognise the link of their work to climate justice but also to develop their individual and organisational political agency, skills and competencies for effective action.

As set out in the European Green Deal, the European Commission developed the GreenComp in 2022, a comprehensive European sustainability competence framework. GreenComp identifies a set of sustainability competences to feed into education programmes to help learners develop values, knowledge, skills and attitudes that promote ways to think, plan and act with empathy, responsibility, and care for our planet and for public health.

In the context of the European Year of Skills, GCE will play a key role as a facilitating entity for sustainable change of mentality and actions in organisations by promoting, cultivating, training and expanding these green competences.

Aims:

Empower and assist Member Organisations and youth organisations to mainstream sustainability principles across their work through developing a better understanding of the interlinkages between climate and their work, identifying steps towards applying sustainability throughout organisational processes, and implementing these changes.

Policies addressed:

GreenComp 2022, European Year of Skills

Deliverables:

• Develop a handbook for Member Organisations on sustainable event planning and management
• Organise and deliver trainings and green competencies in for Member Organisations in collaboration with the trainings team
• Establish an inter-MO exchange and empowerment group of individuals working towards climate education
• Empower Member Organisations to make better use of the European Commission’s Education for Climate Coalition platform