The Environmental Protection and the World of Work summer school brings together two separate worlds: the environmental protection and the development of competencies and creativity linked to environmental protection. The aim of the course is to address the increasing necessity to develop an integrative approach in environmental sciences and green careers counseling, and thus build a bridge between the academic knowledge and the more practical aspects of entrepreneurship. In order to help students become more active and responsible, both locally and globally, and to contribute to the further development of key competencies linked to world of work and to the formation of a strong environmental conscience in school communities, the course will promote the use of real-world learning activities, preparing educators to develop the skills, knowledge and networks to transform their schools and thus become change agents. To do so, the participating teachers will be engaged in the process of resource-based approaches via their interaction with a unique collection of open digital educational resources (linked with the associated curricula). These resources do not impose a fixed curriculum but support the development of a model that can be customized to reflect location and culture as well as cross-disciplinary situations, and thus are ideal to be used in the European context providing differentiated instruction. In addition, teachers will be trained to select appropriate and freely available ICT tools that suit their own needs in terms of planning, implementing and sharing pedagogical ideas, managing their classroom, and organizing the curriculum. This will further empower them to create effective problem-solving scenarios to use in their classrooms with their students as well as in multiple environments such as face-to-face, online and other technology mediated learning. Such an approach enabling all stakeholders (teachers pre-service and in-service, teachers' trainers, curriculum developers) to examine their own practices in the light of the best performing approaches. Ultimately, the teachers engaged will take up the educational scenarios, and use them in a way that generates new ideas and innovative solutions, achieving extended awareness-raising on environmental issues, and enhanced knowledge and skills on entrepreneurship in a European setting. Under this perspective the summer course will qualify all participants to recognize, develop and further promote the various dimensions of entrepreneurial skills (e.g. to create new ideas, to turn ideas into action, to devise a plan, to identify and seize opportunities, to work in a group, to work self-reliantly etc.) and as such guarantee the smooth and successful transition of their pupils from school to the World of Work. This process will also lead students to comprehend the significance of protecting the natural environment, as well as the importance of a balanced ecosystem for the orderly operation of human life, thus achieving a major goal of the classroom. 

Participants: Primary and Secondary school teachers, school leaders and policy makers from European countries. Participation in the course can be funded by the ERASMUS+ programme. More info on the eligible countries and on the process for applying is available here. The course, as well as all training material, will be delivered in English.