Fat chance of this, you might think, when neither education nor sustainability look like being discussed at all. My money's on the economy generally, dealing with the deficit in particular, welfare, the NHS and other parties' lack of credibility. Anyway, who would ever think that "ESD" would play well on doorsteps? Madness. Of course, UCU is not actually calling for ESD; rather, it's looking towards more and greater "sustainability skills", all of which shows the uselessness of ESD as a slogan.
UCU, acting on behalf of the GreenerJobsAlliance (there's a video here), has sent a letter to political parties in the lead up to the election with a link to its 10 Point Action Plan for sustainability skills. There are no signs that this has had any effect. Here are the 10 points:
1. Legislation
A voluntary approach is failing to deliver change at the pace and scale required. In the school and tertiary sector a driver for curriculum change is needed.
ACTION: Adopt a new legal requirement to make sustainable development a central organising principle of publicly funded bodies.
2. Government leadership
There is currently a lack of effective co-ordination across government departments to embed the skills for a low carbon transition.
ACTION: Create a ministerial post to promote cross-departmental working around the policy measures listed below.
3. Industrial strategy
The Government’s Industrial Strategy does not link growth with sustainability criteria. This has hindered progress on matching the supply and demand for training between education providers and employers.
ACTION: Adopt sector sustainability commitments for an active green industrial strategy and match to targets for job creation and training.
4. Apprenticeships
Many apprenticeship programmes lack credibility in terms of quality and quantity. Each apprenticeship needs to be tailored to ensure the integration of sustainability themes. Any expansion must address the under-representation of some sections of society in certain trades.
ACTION: Assess the content of apprenticeships and introduce or enhance sustainability components.
5. Qualification and awarding bodies
Current progress on curriculum change is hampered by a lack of sustainability focus from some organisations overseeing education programmes.
ACTION: Assess the content of current learning outcomes and criteria and introduce or enhance sustainability components.
6. Research
Research and development have a crucial role in the transition to a low carbon economy. The UK spends a lower percentage of GDP than the EU average.
ACTION: Increase to 3% and prioritise funding for research and development that contributes to sustainable development.
7. Education sector funding
The sector has experienced cuts that have reduced its capacity to deliver a curriculum capable of meeting today’s challenges. Long-term strategic planning requires a consistent and properly financed framework.
ACTION: Funding bodies must link additional funding to sustainability performance.
8. Inspection and monitoring
The inspection framework is not effectively monitoring ESD performance. Institutions should be inspected for ESD evidence such as curriculum audits and reports to governors.
ACTION: Quality assurance bodies such as the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and Ofsted must be given a clear mandate to monitor ESD performance.
9. Stakeholder engagement
The opportunity for promoting ESD across key stakeholders is huge. Institutions often fail to engage with other sector organisations, their staff and students, and community organisations to maximise this potential.
ACTION: Provision of local authority funding ring-fenced to facilitate joint community-based working on sustainable employment growth.
10. Just transition
The move towards a low carbon economy must be built on the just transition principles of equality, consultation and decent jobs. ESD can make a crucial contribution to this process but only as part of a wider duty to consult with workers and their trade union reps.
ACTION: Introduce a legal right to appoint trade union environment reps in the workplace.
While it's easy to pick holes in this sort of thing – for example, #2 seems to be promoting a Department of Administrative Affairs in the style of Jim Hacker – there is some sense in what is proposed here, #3, #5 and #6, for example. None of those mention ESD, you'll note. Others are barmy. Take #8, giving QAA a "mandate to monitor ESD performance". Given the mess it made of its efforts with the HEA to generate guidelines (what became of them?), why would anyone trust it to do this?
Anyway, back to the election, personally, in that spirit of optimism I can never quite shake off, I'm really looking forward to UKIP's taking up ESD with its normal saloon bar enthusiasm.
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