Summer University Distance Learning Courses in Sustainability
We at BTH (Blekinge Technical Institute) are in full swing with university-credited options for studying strategic sustainable development by distance. We’ve just opened applications for a summer offering of our relatively new graduate course Introduction to Strategic Sustainable Development, which has now been completed by almost 100 people in a wide variety of professions and over 25 countries. What do they all have in common? All of their skills are needed if we are going to successfully transition society to sustainability, and sharing stories, experience and analyses through a common language and framework for sustainability seems to really empower people. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback on the format of the course – it is appealing for people who work full-time and cannot easily relocate, as well as those who are travelling. This distance course runs for about 3 months, and includes both personal study time and live interactive ‘webinars’.
I find it incredible to work with such a diverse group of people – ages range from 23 to 66, working in municipal governments, big corporations, SMEs, with NGOs and consultancies.
We are trying to foster both individual capacity building in sustainable development, as well as the building of both local networks and larger communities of people working together across the globe. I try to encourage people to grab a friend or colleague and take the course together, as this really helps to build local networks, capacity and support in the workplace.
Empowering society as a whole to make an active transition to sustainability really takes a model of cooperation and alignment amongst organizations. Partnering universities, NGOs, communities and industry is part of that, and we are pleased to be modeling that with TNS and the Real Change Programme. I think it’s so important for people in general to be able to access various types of training opportunities in sustainability and strategic sustainable development, as people have different constraints relating to time, access, funding, accreditation needs, applicability and areas of interest. Different organizations specialize in different formats: workshops, seminars, certification courses, e-learning courses, workplace training, public lectures, self-study, university courses and graduate programmes vary in delivery methods and focus, yet centre around common core concepts that link us all together in the end.
Fiona Wright
fiona.wright@bth.se
Course Coordinator
Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden