Greening Skills in TVET Colleges of Ethiopia (Public Lecture)

This public lecture was held by Dr. Befekadu Zeleke Kidane, Dr. Yekunoamlak Alemu Woldeyohanis, and Dr. Demoze Degefa Alemu | College of Education and Behavioral Studies, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia during their study visit in Austria. 

The three speakers conduct research together with Monika Kastner and Peter Schlögl (Institut für Erziehungswissenschaft und Bildungsforschung | Department of Educational Science, Universität Klagenfurt) in the funding programme "Cooperation Development Research" (financed by the BMBWF). The Austro-Ethiopian project is entitled “Employability and Lifelong Learning in Technical and Vocational Professions” (KoEF 11/2019; 01.11.2020 – 31.10.2023).

Abstract of this public lecture:

Both climate change and environmental degradation are among the serious challenges of our world. The role of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in identifying the challenges and opportunities is key as TVET involve in providing training to minimize and reduce the impact of climate change. It is well-acknowledged by UNESCO at the third World Conference on TVET, with its call for a double transformation to move TVET practices towards a more inclusive, and make it fit to contribute to a wider process of building sustainable futures. Since then UNESCO has prioritized to change public TVET greener, both in how they operate and in their focus on the skills and occupations they develop. Greening TVET colleges is, therefore, a method of modifying the institution’s awareness, behaviors, and activities to match them up with the broader principle of sustainability. The main objective of this project on greening TVET and associated skills development is thus to contribute to the green economy initiatives of Ethiopia. To date, it remains vague concerning the types of green skills demanded by the industries and other sectors due to the diverse nature of work. The project is intended to find out what type of green skills are actually sought by the green industry particularly in developing countries of Africa such as Ethiopia. The project brings professionals from both the North and South and a number of institutions working together and engage in a rigorous research on the topic, conduct series of validation workshops and seminars, and capacity development activities including PhD programs and training of trainers for TVET staff. Besides the capacity development, the project will identify the existing gaps and challenges in greening TVET, publish articles in journals, develop a module/s and incorporate it in TVET curriculum and comes out withother actions as way forward.