SusEd Passport to Sustainability

A 26-week immersive sustainability education course, available face-to-face and online, that equips students with the leadership skills and strategies needed to address the global sustainability challenge.

Over the last two years, we’ve seen this course significantly enhance our graduates’ prospects for higher education and employment, whilst contributing to impactful sustainable service projects, both locally and around the world.

This sustainability skills course explores sustainability as a global, local, and personal challenge, intertwining environmental and social justice issues. Through presentations, investigations, reflections, and discussions, students will develop a sustainability-oriented mindset to inform conscious life choices. The programme begins with personal reflections on individual concerns, shaping the content to suit your community of learners. Topics include personal connections to nature, resource use, ecosystem breakdown, climate change, inequality, and poverty. Students will contemplate new perspectives on growth versus progress and examine their responses to emerging views. The final component involves collaborative action planning in small groups, supported by mentors.

Who is this course for?

High school students aged 15-18 who are aspirational changemakers, preparing for employment or tertiary education, and who are passionate about leadership and contributing to a better, more peaceful and more sustainable world.

Learning Objectives

  1. Cultivate an orientation towards sustainability that informs conscious life choices and actions.

  2. Gain a comprehensive understanding of the interconnected issues of environmental and social justice, including resource use, ecosystem breakdown, climate change, inequality, and poverty.

  3. Reflection on personal concerns and roles within the broader context of sustainability, contemplating new perspectives on growth versus progress.

  4. Engagement in collaborative action planning, working in small groups with mentor support to develop practical and sustainable solutions for  local, regional and global communities.

Students will gain a profound understanding of sustainability, complexity theory, and systems thinking, empowering them to navigate and address the intricate challenges of the global sustainability challenge. The course is designed to develop critical skills such as strategic intelligence, scenario planning, innovation, and resilience, equipping students to drive positive change in an increasingly complex world. The SusEd passport will help you to understand and develop innovative and practical approaches that incorporate cutting-edge sustainability thinking into your world view, which will inform your future career and life choices.

Upon successful completion, graduates will receive a SusEd Sustainability Leadership Certificate. High school students across the world have used the skills and capstone project developed in this course as part of successful university applications in Canada, the USA and the UK.

Facilitation

This intensive course is facilitated by leading educators and thinkers in the field of sustainable education and development, from SusEd faculty,  Sustainability Matters (NPO) and in collaboration with the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). 

For both face-to-face and online students, weekly sessions are a combination of synchronous and asynchronous sessions online, allowing students to learn at their own pace while also participating in live discussions and presentations. In addition, students have the option to contribute in-person to SusEd projects in Thailand, Zambia, Ireland and South Africa which also feature as case-studies in the course. In order to complete the course, the SusEd Passport requires a weekly commitment of 60-90 minute sessions over six months. The timing of the sessions will be determined by the number of students attending, once registration has closed.

Course Dates:

January 2025 - June 2025

with a break at the end of March and beginning of April for independent project work.

Sessions:

26 weekly sessions, lasting 60-90 minutes each.

Course Content

The course offers a comprehensive and immersive learning experience made up of 29 modules, including: Orientation and Welcome, Connecting to Nature, Systems Mapping for Complex Problems, Climate Change and its Impact, The Great Acceleration, The Future of Work: From Linear to Circular, Green Economy, Immersive Learning Experience (3 days in a developing context), and Final Project Presentations.

Pricing

Fee: $2000/€2000 per student.

Course fees cover all expenses, including learning materials, expert guest speakers, faculty and administration. A significant portion of each fee is reinvested into SusEd’s sustainable service projects in Thailand, Zambia, Ireland and South Africa and to student-led projects near host schools, which also serve as case studies throughout the course.

Book your place for January 2025

or email us at hello@sused.org for more information