Are new entrants to built environment courses adequately informed and prepared for the climate and ecological challenges that they will be dealing with in both their training and careers?
Those entering the built environment professions today will be expected to rapidly develop the skills and ability to ensure that the projects they deliver have net zero carbon emissions and increased levels of biodiversity. In all likelihood achieving these two goals will be the primary focus and undertaking of their future careers. To accomplish this, new entrants to built environment courses need to arrive with the right knowledge and mind-sets, and schools need to ensure that they have prepared potential entrants by the end of sixth form with the attributes they require to succeed in their subsequent technical and professional training.
To reach this point environmental education needs to start in the earliest years, building up awareness of the twin challenges of climate and ecological breakdown and a positive approach to and belief in what can be done to tackle them. Only in the later stages will courses need to deliver more specialised content aimed at students applying to built environment courses.
Universities and colleges have the capacity to set the standards of awareness, understanding and skills they expect to be demonstrated by potential entrants to their courses and this should apply across built environment undergraduate courses from as early as 2022 or 2023 at the latest. But in the event that the school curriculum is not able to move at the pace needed, it may be necessary for them to offer pre-degree foundation courses to provide the required climate and ecological education as a ‘catch-up’ for new entrants.
As Professor Tim Ibell of the University of Bath has identified: “It would help enormously were education in schools repositioned to tackle the cultural changes needed over the coming decades to look differently at how we use our resources.
If every schoolkid knew intrinsically, for instance, that the ordering to achieve net zero was USE LESS STUFF, then SPECIFY LOW-CARBON STUFF and finally OFFSET to just sneak us over the net-zero line, we would have a start in changing things radically for the better.”
How can this be put into practice? The Edge’s Education Round Table will explore the issues.
Chair:
Jane Davidson, Pro Vice-Chancellor Emeritus, University of Wales Trinity Saint David
Round table presenters:
The challenge to the industry and recruitment - Jon Bootland, Director Sustainable Development Foundation
The need for well informed and motivated entrants to BE courses (including expected standards) - James Norman - Professor of Sustainable Design. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol
Ensuring the school curriculum delivers - Dr Lizzie Rushton, Associate Professor and Research Lead, UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education
Teach the Future’s programme/demands - Josh Tregale, Mechanical Engineering Student and Climate Activist
Student expectations and the future - Jamie Agombar, Executive Director of Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK)
The financial consequences of inaction for climate and ecological education - Emma Crichton, Head of Engineering at Engineers Without Borders
Round table participants:
Laura Webb, Director of Membership, Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE)
Andrew Close, Director of Education and Profession, Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)
Séan Harris, Director of Membership, Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)
Alex Whitcroft, The Climate Framework and Director, KIN
Aled Williams, Executive Director: Innovation and Partnerships, University College of Estate Management (UCEM)
Juliet Upton, Head of Education and Skills Policy, Royal Academy of Engineering
·Julia Stevens, CEO, Constructionarium
Nick Ford, Design Engineer, Pipsqueak Developments
Mike Cook, Chair, Climate Emergency Task Group, the Institution of Structural Engineers
Downloads:
Edge notes and references following the Roundtable