In August 2022 the Department for Education announced that it will invest £2.6 million in West Yorkshire’s colleges through the Strategic Development Fund.

As well as allowing educators to increase their specialist electric vehicle and retrofit equipment to deliver training, the funding will help to grow and embed green and sustainable knowledge within the curriculum.

The funding will enable internal training and development in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within eight West Yorkshire Colleges. They will work collaboratively to embed Global Goals set out by world leaders within their college, both from a business perspective and within the curriculum.

The following colleges are apart of this project, and this is some of what they have been achieving:

Bradford College

• Raising awareness among staff and students with visual screens and marketing material used across its campuses.
• 132 trainee teachers trained with more to follow, which is also making an impact in the primary schools they work in.

Calderdale College

• 50+ staff trained with more sessions booked in.
• Free ‘shop’ for clothes and toiletries.
• Carbon literacy training taking place across the college.

Wakefield College, part of Heart of Yorkshire Colleges Group

• All-staff training day planned to include SDGs.
• All students have sustainability included into their induction programmes.
• Curriculum mapping underway to make sure SDGs play a part.

Kirklees College

• New sustainability group established within the college including student representation.
• Investment in solar panels, with cost savings already realised.
• Marketing team raising awareness within the college campuses.

Leeds College of Building

• Plans to brief curriculum leadership team.
• Tutorials planned for all students and teaching staff.
• Using the Education and Training Foundation toolkit to map curriculum to the SDGs.

Leeds City and Keighley Colleges, part of Luminate Education Group

• SDGs now included in business planning process.
• Cascade training to over 600 staff including 87 people on leadership and management development day.
• Appointed a sustainability manager.
• Curriculum and staff undertaking more sustainable practices and supporting good causes.

Notre Dame Sixth Form

• Measuring the footprint of the sixth form.
• Linking with other organisations in the region.

• Teaching staff and tutor representatives trained.

Shipley College

• Leading and supporting other colleges in implementation of SDGs.
• Planning annual sustainability awards for students.
• WWF Sustainable Futures certified course being delivered to students.

This short film highlights some of the benefits the colleges have identified from working collaboratively on the project:

The examples above are just a small sample of the actions being carried out in the region which will have an impact on thousands of students and staff and create new ways of learning and working to achieve the goals in West Yorkshire.

The United Nations provide a number of resources that can be used to help embed SDGs across the world. These resources and logos are available on the Global Goals website and must be used within the United Nations brand guidelines. All can be found here