Sustainable development in vocational education and training

The focus on sustainable development is intensifying across the globe, in industry and society. Sustainable development has implications in all areas of social and economic development and presents a significant opportunity for the vocational education and training systems. Work has been done in identifying how to incorporate sustainability into some qualifications in the vocational education and training (VET) system, but this has not yet occurred at a systemic level. Sustainability, as an objective, has always been present within education but its recognition and articulation has advanced significantly as a result of the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs). Due to its broad applicability to the Australian workforce, VET is ideally placed to incorporate sustainable development principles and practices in an effective, efficient and enduring manner. Over the last six months we've been exploring the applicability of the UN SDGs to the built environment. This is particularly necessary, as: the built environment accounts for 22 per cent of the world's sustainability problems; and the World Economic forum (2019) notes that awareness of the UN SDGs in Australia is on par with the European countries of Holland and Germany.

Key points: there is a business return on investment from achieving SDGs; sustainable development has many aspects - it's not just environmental, but also social, economic, etc.; sustainable development is coming - Australia is a signatory to the UN SDGs; industry and government need to consider how to achieve SDGs both generally and in the workforce setting; challenges need to be met by both industry and government; and the VET system has clearly identifiable elements that can support achieving SDGs. Artibus Innovation is committed to sustainable development in the workforce of the built environment. We have been sponsoring co-design workshops with industry peak bodies from the property services sector as part of our Industry Skills Forecast activity [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 128.952, TD/TNC 133.362, TD/TNC 137.253 and TD/TNC 140.619]. What we have discovered so far is that there is an appetite for this discussion and that education has a huge part to play.

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