What does sustainability actually look like in practice? How do vocational education students move from abstract knowledge about Sustainable Development Goals to concrete understanding?
The VETsdgs project’s Student Week in Groningen provided compelling answers to these questions, bringing together students from Italy, Spain, Finland, Estonia, and the Netherlands for five intensive days of experiential learning.
Hosted by Alfa-college in Groningen (VET2Sustain partner), the programme was designed to integrate multiple learning environments and methodologies. The city of Groningen itself became a case study, with students working directly with municipal authorities on authentic urban planning challenges.
The visit to Alfa-college’s Textile Hub demonstrated circular economy principles in action. Students observed how a single well-designed initiative can generate environmental value through resource circularity, economic value through local production and job creation, and social value through inclusion and education.
Suikerterrein, a natural space dedicated to sustainability projects, offered yet another learning environment: a hub where green creativity takes tangible form and community members share innovations and ideas. These diverse settings demonstrated that sustainability isn’t confined to specific sectors or institutions—it’s a cross-cutting priority being addressed through varied approaches across society.
The excursion to Schiermonnikoog Island provided perhaps the week’s most impactful experience. This UNESCO World Heritage Site, measuring just 8 × 13 kilometres, maintains over 70% of its territory as a protected nature reserve. The island operates almost entirely car-free, relying primarily on bicycles for transport, and hosts remarkable biodiversity including seal populations and migratory bird habitats. Here, students learned about the island’s unique characteristics and faced a concrete challenge: developing innovative solutions to reduce water waste in this fragile ecosystem.
Working alongside peers from different countries, students shared diverse cultural perspectives on sustainability, learned to communicate and collaborate across linguistic differences, and developed solutions drawing on their varied educational and cultural backgrounds. The final day presentations allowed each group to showcase solutions developed collaboratively throughout the week, sharing reflections and learnings with the entire cohort.
This Student Week directly advances VET2Sustain’s core objectives. By bringing together students and educators from five countries and facilitating partnerships with municipalities, businesses, and sustainability organizations, the programme strengthened cooperation between VET schools and working life across Europe. Students developed crucial soft skills including cross-cultural collaboration, critical thinking, systems thinking about complex challenges, and the confidence to propose solutions to real-world problems—all essential for lifelong learning in rapidly evolving labor markets.
The model is highly transferable. Other VET institutions can adapt this approach by identifying local sustainability challenges, partnering with municipalities and organizations addressing those challenges, designing student activities that combine learning with real problem-solving, and facilitating international collaboration to enrich perspectives.