How do you choose the best sustainability education and training providers?

By defining a clear set of initiatives or skills that your sustainability education and training providers will be meeting, it's easier to evaluate who the right individual, team or organization for that role will become. By establishing a series of criteria and goals for your learning objectives you will produce a well-informed strategy from which to define your selection of the best providers for the undertakings that you are pinpointing are most important to your team and organization.

Every educator knows the best learner is a motivated learner. It’s worth noting your motivations and letting that guide your choice. If you’re interested as an individual, are you driven by concerns about environmental impacts? Perhaps you’re doing it to progress in your career or to switch careers. If you’re with an organisation, key considerations (besides costs) will include: • whether you need to train your entire workforce, just management, or particular functions and roles. A few providers can do all of these simultaneously. • Is your organisation concerned about meeting regulatory requirements, or consumer or investor expectations? Increasingly, organisations are seeing training as way to capitalise on emerging opportunities.

Identify your needs and your stakeholders. There are very effective techniques we could mention, however, I think is important to highlight that, when it comes to sustainability, your business sustainable strategy, alongside your legal framework, should lead the way in setting goals and KPIs.

When it comes on selecting training and Education provider for Sustainability. First thing is to define the Purpose ,Level and volume of people need to be part of it. How is the training module matching the need of the end user.Training module should be interactive, easy to understand by the user.The content need to be planned smartly so that the entire training becomes intresting.The certification should be a value add .

Having worked in sustainability education a long time I’m painfully aware of the need to meet learners where they’re at in their sustainability journey. Many courses lose people by going too deep too quickly, bamboozling them technical data and acronyms. As a sustainability trainer, it’s all too easy to ‘shock and awe’ with horror stories of sea level rise, heatwaves, storms etc. Often this just leads to paralysis rather than generating hope and action — not good! The content should be engaging, inspiring even, and always point towards the actions that individuals and groups of people can take. Some providers have extensive content libraries and trainers catering to all industries, sectors and organisational levels – and even most roles!

Selecting an effective sustainability education and training provider is crucial. A well-rounded curriculum that is tailored to industry-specific needs and diverse delivery methods are key components to look for. In my experience, with our initiative Circularity Academy, our approach has been to embrace the contemporary dynamics of learning and engagement through a gamified e-learning platform. We've found It's important to foster an environment where learning is not only informative but also engaging and adaptable to various needs and preferences.

Having enrolled myself in several courses in the past years, I can say that this is a critical element when deciding for a professional formation. I can add that, a hybrid intake, of virtual and in-person learning, has been very enriching for my journey.

The credibility of the provider is paramount. Have they got lengthy industry (and training!) experience backed by strong academic qualifications? Is their content science-based? Their pedigree can often be inferred from the calibre of clients they’ve delivered training for before. With sustainability, what is current and accurate today may be out of date tomorrow. Your provider needs to make sure their content keeps pace. However, while sustainability topics are becoming more niche and complex (think decarbonisation pathways), they are also becoming more intersectional (think ESG, and linkages with biodiversity and social inequalities). Your provider should have sufficient experience across a broad range of topics to meet your needs.

If the training involves passing an examination to obtain a certification, I always check the training provider's passing rates.

Based on my experience, knowing the leading scientific organisations is a great help. I can mention TCFD, CDP among others. However, top leading universities like the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management in Germany, are the perfect start for a sustainable journey. The Frankfurt School, for example, offers a variety of Sustainability e-courses perfectly tailored according to the market and business needs.

I have found that online courses on coursera, edx or other platforms offer superior value for money. You can get excellent education from leading universities in the world for free or for a fraction of the price of an in-person training. This has an implication for choosing in-person/offline trainings: I would opt for an in-person training on topics that are either not available online or that focus on practical application of a given topic. If the in-person training is just about learning from slides with minimal discussions, I'd advise to go for an online course which is much more affordable. In-person/offline trainings that are more expensive should be chosen when they are highly practical with lots of exercises and discussions.

With sustainability training you largely get what you pay for. While some free offerings are surprisingly good, they tend to be narrower in what they cover, limited in availability, or the trainers lack experience. At the other end of the scale, well known tertiary education or corporate providers — leaning on their brand power — often charge eyewatering figures. All up, such is the profusion of courses and providers that there is you should have no trouble finding one that has what you need at a price point that fits your budget.

Consider the benefits as well. We understand that cost-value can be a difficult ecuation to balance, however, do not miss the opportuny to get in touch and request help if necessary. Additionally, there are plenty of free resources to start the journey.

I think it is essential to consider that this is a topic that is still rapidly evolving, especially on the policy and legislative side of things. Of course, a high quality (and with so costly) education can give you the basis in this field, but it is so important to keep up with current trends, changes and developments. A great bit of advice that I have recently received, which anyone can do without spending a penny, is simply to follow some of the top voices within this area on platforms such as LinkedIn and to engage with their content, or even ask for help on a certain topic.

Diving into the sustainability education community you will find a variety of providers who can offer a wide-range of networks and communities that you can draw from. While it's important to select partner who is well-versed in the area of sustainability education that best suits your strategic needs, it is also important to pick a solutions provider that you have a natural synergy with. They will be one of the key operators in telling your sustainability story in both your shared networks, so this is not simply a choice of whose audience is larger or best, but who is the fit for your goals for a broader sustainability education mindset in the long-term.

Good training content should be designed to be shareable and enable peer-to-peer learning. The best self-learning comes when we try to explain a concept to others unfamiliar with it. More than once, I've found out the hard way that I didn't know something as well as I thought I did! And having sustainability knowledge shared by 'one of our own' engenders collective action better than almost any other method. To boot, for an organisation, it's a win-win to know you're getting the most out of your training budget.

Networking is key in the sustainability education journey. I have found that peer-to-peer learning is an incredible development tool for courious learners. Connect with like-minded professionals (virtually, personally), ask questions, participate in events, engage and seek for advice if needed.