Strengthening of Capacity in Environmental Education

The aim of the project was to strengthen the capacity in environmental education at 2 Thai Technical Colleges - Samutprakan and Chonburi - but was later extended to include also the colleges in Chiang Mai, Phuket and Nakhonratschasima. The project was a co-operation between a consortium of ÅF Process AB and KTH on the one side and OVEC (Office of Vocational Education Commission) of Thailand on the other. Important project objectives were: (i)To assist OVEC in developing curricula and course contents of training programmes in environmental management and wastewater treatment techniques, (ii) to assist OVEC in developing teaching and learning materials in said areas, (ii) to assist OVEC in planning and developing training courses for teachers, (iv) to equip the colleges at Samutprakan and Chonburi with state-of the art environmental laboratories, (v) to train teachers at five Thai colleges in using the laboratories, (vi) to create links with relevant institutions and vocational training centres in Sweden and (vii) to share experiences from the project with technical colleges in the region, offering industrial training programmes at a vocational level. Altogether, fifteen teachers have been trained at the five colleges. The training has taken place at all the five colleges and involved additional teachers on specific subjects. The main focus has been on waste water treatment, but training was also given in the subjects cleaner production, sustainable development and systems analysis. This has contributed to a deeper understanding of the environmental issues and the need for a holistic view in environmental education and sustainable development issues. A great many study visits have been carried out at industries and environmental installations. This has greatly contributed to the understanding of the subjects and the practical aspects of the education. The results of the project has been presented at a regional seminar and a workshop for the Vocational Educational organisations in Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam resulting in an agreement on regional cooperation within the field of environmental education. A lesson learned during the project was that practical training in laboratories need much more time than anticipated as most of the teachers did not have any chemical background or laboratory experience. Another experience was that the language barrier may become significant and that the outcome was far better for teachers with good understanding of the English langue.

Project time: October 2004 - June 2007
Project Co-ordinator: Björn Frostell
Main project participants: Hans Hargbäck, Rune Bergström, Åsa Sivard at ÅF Process AB; Lennart Nilson and Björn Frostell at Industrial Ecology KTH
Budget: 5 640 000 SEK
Financed by: Sida - Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency