The Green Teen transitions project (2015-2017) aimed to enhance online supports being provided by ECO-UNESCO, a partner of RCE Dublin, to enable unemployed youth (aged 16-19) transition more readily towards employment or further education in the green economy. The project set out to:
- Design and deliver online ESD training to unemployed youth on concepts, contexts, principles and practices of sustainability.
- Provide a facility for online mentoring and educational support for youth transitioning towards further education/ employment in the green economy.
- Increase youth transitions towards further education and/ or employment.
The project was led by ECO-UNESCO, with other RCE Dublin members (such as DCU and An Taisce), providing support at various stages in the enterprise. A blended online ESD model was deployed, with a focus of ‘flipping the classroom’ so that 50-80% of the course was made available using social media and multimedia formats on Moodle, and the remainder consisted of face-to-face tutorials at participating institutions. The specialised training modules on sustainability were made available to participants in advance of and during the work-place based internship. Following the pilot phase and roll out of online training and supports throughout the wider Dublin region in 2016, the online elements were fully integrated with the official ECO-UNESCO Green Pathways project by 2017, and thus the work of the Green Teen Transitions project was completed. More information about ECO-UNESCO Green Pathways projects can be accessed here.