Preface This handbook was developed to assist educators and trainees in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in re-orienting their curriculum, learning/teaching practices, resource materials and assessment towards sustainable development. The focus of the handbook is on the use of changes in the format and content of assessment as the vehicle for the mainstreaming of: Education for Sustainable Development into Technical and Vocational Education and Training. Chapter 1 - Introduction 1.1 The chapter seeks to introduce technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and relate it to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) 1.2 Technical and Vocational Education and Training can be defined as education for the world of work. It is essential for developing knowledge and skills for employability and employment creation. It aims to support economic and social development. 1.3 Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)is a multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral process of learning how to make decisions that consider the long-term future of the economy, ecology and the social wellbeing of all communities. 1.4 The integration of ESD into TVET will make TVET go beyond the technical skills and knowledge and include social, ecological and economic values which help build harmonious societies. It orients the trainee to satisfy the present needs of society without compromising the capacity of the future generations to meet their own needs. 1.5 ESD looks at how humanity and all other forms of life on earth depend on the earth’s ecosystems and the resources they provide. Ecosystem services include resources like food and water, aesthetic enjoyments, climate regulation and others. ESD considers how the impacts of the harm that humans have made to the life supporting systems have affected human well-being and economic development. The discipline looks at how in some situations the impacts may have resulted in the degradation of many ecosystems and the exacerbation of poverty and deprivation in some communities. The issue of climate change is one case in point. The heat trapping gases that are daily released into the atmosphere have a warming effect on the earth’s atmosphere. The effects will last centuries, causing climate change (including the risks of desertification) and other changes in the ecosystems that will negatively affect the lives of the present communities and the lives of their future generations. Chapter 2 - The Dimensions of Education for Sustainable Development 2.1.1 The Socio-Cultural Dimension This dimension includes such elements as human rights issues, social justice, peace and security, gender equity and gender equality, cultural diversity, intercultural understanding, health, HIV and AIDS, governance. 2.1.2 The Economic Dimension The elements in the economic dimension are employment, poverty reduction, income inequality, corporate responsibility and accountability, 2.1.3 The Environmental Dimension The ecological issues include such natural resources elements as water, waste, energy, agriculture, biodiversity. Other issues are climate change, disaster prevention and mitigation. The interrelationship amongst the three dimensions of sustainable development can be illustrated diagrammatically. Sustainable Development dimensions seen as concentric rings. The model looks at sustainable development as the way the economy impacts on the society in which it operates and how in turn the society impacts on the environment. The interrelations can also be shown using a set of three interlocking circles as below. The model emphasises the multidisciplinary and interrelated nature of sustainable development. Interventions in the one realm will have an impact on the other dimensions. The intersections of the three circles is small depicting the limited scope for synchrony and harmony amongst the three dimensions. Often positive developments or changes in one dimension which may result in of the adverse effect on other dimensions. The need to balance the changes and development is the big challenge facing humanity. A third model is the “Three Pillars Model” that presents Sustainable Development as being supported by the three pillars; viz, economy, environment and society. The model is popular with decision makers. However it is limited in that it does not adequately illustrate the interrelationships amongst the three dimensions of sustainable development. Other models look at sustainable development as involving more than the three dimensions indicated above. Political factors have also been presented as an additional dimension. Chapter 3 - Reorienting Existing Technical and Vocational Education and Training 3.1 Definitions The following curricula features are useful in defining a course curriculum orientation in adult learning: Responsiveness - This is about the responsiveness to learners in a given socio-ecological context. The curriculum is also inf