First ENE GRETA Thematic Webinar on greening responses to Excellence – online visit to Denmark: How to deal with the “fear of change“ in teacher education and training in TVET?

As part of the ETF GRETA initiative, the first of six Thematic Webinars on "Greening of TVET" took place on 1 June 2022. The webinar focused on teacher education and training in TVET, a topic that the participating CoVEs had identified in advance as a key element of greening TVET. During a virtual trip to Denmark, three TVET institutions from Denmark presented their best practices regarding their approaches to achieving what Julian Stanley (Senior Human Capital Development Specialist at the ETF) called "Green Professional Development" (GPD).

At the end of her presentation on Green upskilling of VET teachers at TechCollege in Aalborg, Denmark, Mette Gram asked the more than 60 participants: “What is the shortest path to green transition in your context and what do you need to upskill education-wise?”. To answer this question, it is important to remember that a green transition always involves change - and people tend to be sceptical about change. Will I have to adjust my habits? What if I can't cope with what is expected of me? What if things change for the worse for me? During the network discussion and the different contributions, in became clear that these concerns about the green transition exist everywhere, be it in Denmark, Germany, Slovenia or Turkey. From my experience, for people to lose their "fear of change", they need to..

1. have access to high quality information on the current and future situation of our planet,
2. feel that their concerns are taken seriously,
3. have the opportunity to share their experiences and thoughts with peers who are in a similar situation,
4. be shown examples of possible ways forward. 

So, in my opinion, the answer to Mette's question could be: What we need to achieve a sustainable and shared green transition is to make people realise that this transition is not a threat to them. Quite the opposite - a green transition means opportunities for all of us. But these need to be made visible and therefore they need to be discussed, taking into account people's fears and concerns.

In order to motivate people and institutions - which in turn are formed by people - to take the next step towards a green transition, be it in the education sector or in private life, it is vital to have initiatives like GRETA that promote knowledge exchange and mutual learning.