Dr Karen Cripps

This chapter concerns the nexus between the disciplinary areas of Education for Sustainable
Development (ESD) and employability. Sustainability is conceptualized in the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) and focuses on people, the planet, and prosperity. Despite advancing
pedagogic practices for sustainability-related education, the premise here is that the talent pipeline
becomes enhanced if formal curriculum sustainability content is explicitly connected to graduate career
outcomes. This implies that career-based learning requires integration with sustainability-related
learning. A case study is presented of a masterclass in a UK university Business School, which showcases
how students learning about sustainability-related careers can benefit individual, organizational, and
broader societal development. Application of Kumar’s (2022) SOAR employability framework (Self-
Awareness, Opportunity, Aspirations, and Results) to the SDGs generates insights and discussion on the
pedagogic practices that can be adopted to bridge any sustainability-employability gap.

Education for Sustainable Development and graduate employability are key agendas within Higher Education, and career-related events provide a context that caters to both simultaneously. There is a need for greater integration of academic department and career service teams in developing event management that systematically considers the potential to raise awareness of sustainability-related careers. This can maximise student personal and professional growth through sustainability-related career events, which simultaneously benefit the student through shaping personal and professional ‘purpose’, society through impact on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and university impact-related measures. By approaching events as a source of empowering students to become aware of, and actively seek out careers in which they can have a positive impact on people and planet, universities can provide a pipeline of sustainability ‘actioners and transformers’. 

This chapter illuminates the potential actions between career service teams and academic departments in developing information-related events about sustainability-related careers.   It extends a popular employability framework to sustainability, presented with an illustrative case in a UK study context aligned with the sustainability ‘Thinker, Actioner and Transformer’ typology. An analysis of career service information enables clear recommendations to be provided on how academic teams, career and other operational services might coordinate approaches. It is proposed that the ultimate commitment of growth in transformation might well be to nurture students as activists for change, presented through the topical analysis of ‘fossil-free’ career events. This is very much a starting point, and it is hoped that the chapter provides an opening for further discussion.    

This chapter explores and discusses responsible management education (RME) as a paradox. Indeed, there is a contemplation of whether it is irresponsible to deliver RME. The theory of Organisational Ambidexterity, a theory pertaining to paradox, is applied as a lens to critically reflect on progress within the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There is a discussion of tensions that are hindering the impact of PRME and the SDGs. Ambidextrous approaches are presented as a potential consideration/solution for responsible management educators and business school practices moving forward, as well as deeper embedding of competencies for Education for Sustainable Development.

School trips to Outdoor Residential Centres can represent a significant and formative childhood tourism experience that can potentially influence adult tourism and leisure choices. Commonly located in ‘green spaces’ which range from peri-urban through to wild and natural landscapes, these centres offer adventurous outdoor activities. Alongside developmental and educational learning, children are immersed in nature experiences that can enable emotional connections with local environments. This chapter is based on a UK context, in which current policymaking is concerned with increasing inclusivity of access to British landscapes, in which many of these centres are located. It is argued here that Outdoor Residential Centres enable childhood experiences that can influence future consumer choices, alongside shaping support for the future protection of natural landscapes.

As a markedly under-explored area of the literature in the United Kingdom, this conceptual review of the literature sets out the imperative for understanding the vital role of Outdoor Residential Centres in shaping tourism futures. Through bringing together environmental education and psychology with tourism management literature, the chapter identifies the imperative for further research to enable nature connections through Outdoor Residential Centre experiences. This responds to the UK policy agenda to increase nature connections and support conservation. The application of a ‘sustainable children typology’ to a Welsh case study demonstrates how Residential Outdoor Centres enable children's empowerment through outdoor learning experiences that shape them as ‘sustainability thinkers’ and to potentially influence pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours as ‘sustainability transformers’ – and ultimately, eco-literate tourists.

The ‘Principles for Responsible Management Education’ (PRME), supported by the United Nations, provides a global platform for partner Universities to equip business students with the capacity to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. Yet, educating students on the philosophy and practice of sustainable development requires educators’ and students’ understanding of the Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes (KSA) of people which shape behaviours and responsible decision making. The UK’s ‘Quality Assurance Association for Higher Education’ and ‘Advance Higher Education’ (2021) apply competencies for sustainability (UNESCO 2021) through learning outcomes linked to KSA dimensions. This coupling recognises that effective learning extends beyond cognitive outcomes to practical behaviours and emotional engagement.

These learning dimensions are captured in the sustainability mindset, defined as “a way of thinking and being that predisposes individuals to act for the good of planet and people” (Rimanoczy & Klingenberg 2021: 43). This notion can be embedded into management education learning environments by addressing principles that fall within 4 content areas: ecological worldview, systems perspective, spiritual and emotional intelligence. Building the principles into teaching activities generates students’ self-awareness and reflective insights that help shape their attitudes and behaviours. For example, insights might be offered beyond knowledge-based aspects of a course that prompt consideration of individual contributions to addressing environmental challenges.

The research presented is set in both an undergraduate and postgraduate context and draws specifically upon the ‘Sustainability Mindset Indicator’ (SMI); a pioneering online tool that provides developmental insights to participants by identifying their respective areas of their mindset they draw on most and least (see https://smindicator.com). The class instructor receives an overall group profile of results, mapping mindset principles against KSA indicators, enabling teaching activities to be flexed to develop mindset areas according to whether the group shows a higher propensity to draw on cognitive knowledge, physical skills or attitudinal dimensions of mindsets. This activity enables transformational education and change through enhancing personal well-being and students’ employability, while also focusing on planetary challenges. Thus, an individual’s sense of purpose might be ignited being emotionally connected with a subject, meaning, in theory, that they are better positioned to contribute to an organisation’s purpose in their working life.

The research applies the SMI through a research informed teaching approach. Students act as research collaborators, progressing our understanding as to how students’ learning is influenced through engaging with the SMI. This approach builds on literary debates that call for an increased, systematic integration of competencies for embedding the concept and practice of sustainability by students across the formal and informal curriculum (Blasco 2012). The findings will build the case and call to action for higher education’s engagement with and attention on the sustainable development agenda by enhancing the intrinsic importance of a person’s mindset in shaping society’s future.