So where is the project now?

We recently entered the third year of the project and much has already been achieved, highlights include:

• The Sustainable Development Education Survey - completed, published and circulated to college Principals with an invitation to host free SDE development visits in their own colleges from the project consultant, view the  Sustainable Development Education Survey Report (January 2009) (357.54 kB).
• A CPD Unit - Teaching in Further Education: Sustainable Development Education has been developed and validated - F4TK 36 - is now available on the SQA Website. We hope that a number of centres will be offering this unit in the near future.
• A number of articles relating to the Sustainable Development Education Project have been published in Broadcast and elsewhere.
• SDE staff development presentations / workshops have been made to various colleges and other engaged groups: Borders College; Adam Smith College; Ayr College; Langside College; Elmwood College; Scotland's Colleges Subject Networks; The Land-based College consortium; JISC; etc. If you would like to commission a free development visit tailored to your own institutional needs please do not hesitate to get in touch with the project consultant.
• Increasing engagement / collaboration with others active in SDE particularly a renewed dialogue with EAUC Scotland, also: Sustainable Development Education Network - setting revised objectives for the second half of the UNDESD; HE Academy exploring areas of common interest; World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics (WFCP) Sustainable Development Affinity Group - making the links globally.
• The collaborative work, with the Learning and Skills Council to develop sector (curriculum) guidance on embedding SDE into the taught curriculum is now complete and should be published soon.
• A draft of a proposed Student Sustainable Development attitudes survey has been compiled and circulated for comment.
• The Project supported HMIe in the preparation of their SDE Aspect Report. An aspect report by HM Inspectors on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council: Sustainability and Scotland’s Colleges - 30 October 2009.
• Collaborative work with John Forster Associates - Promoting Poverty Aware Procurement on Campus - Poverty Aware Procurement of Beauty Products - is now complete although the wider project is ongoing - my thanks to members of the Hair and Beauty Subject Network for their help and advice in preparation of the report.
• View SDE Project website for regular updates.
• Additional learning materials have been posted on the SDE Learning Resources website.
• A collection of stories/blogs and other learning resources is available on the project consultant's learning resources website. Please feel free to use these as you see fit.
• The project consultant has made publicly available work on a long-term campus sustainability project in the form of an environmental management system.

What next?

It is becoming increasingly apparent that Sustainable Development Education is a key priority with the Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council and is now becoming established as an issue in the boardrooms of Scotland's colleges. Our researches have shown that good practice in the teaching of sustainable development is widespread in the classroom and institution but this often goes unrecognised even by the practitioners themselves - they seem to assume "everyone does that".

The fact is that Sustainable Development Education is not difficult to understand or to deliver and many colleges are already providing provision across a raft of issues employing a range of methods. The SDE project will continue to nurture and support this growing area: through a programme of development visits to management and curriculum teams; provision of CPD; by keeping the sector informed as to developments in the field for example the national conference on SDE which was held in Edinburgh in November 2009, and; through the creation of a practical resource bank for use on the campus, and in the classroom and lecture theatre.