Technological University Dublin

The IMPACT of NEMOS – An Irish Case-study for developing food sustainability competencies: Educator professional development and service-learning as a signature pedagogy

Sustainability is an important value governing society and a key competency for graduates. Food graduates need to address challenges such as climate change and food waste, and support food producers to meet global economic, social and environmental sustainability targets.

Education is a powerful vehicle for sustainable development. Curriculum design should integrate sustainability competences and thus educators should upskill in ‘Education for Sustainability’. Through IMPACT funding, formal educator professional development in Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) paved the way for the ‘NEMOS project’ which linked sustainability, service learning (SL) and food to demonstrate how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) can be achieved.

NEMOS identified a profile of food technical knowledge and demonstrated how pedagogies involving community and stakeholder engagement develop technical and transversal skills required to increase food sustainability. NEMOS was successful in developing an educational model, complete with a guiding Handbook including a toolkit and case studies, to integrate sustainability competences within the curriculum.

Top 3 Learnings

1. As food systems align very closely with the SDGs so must food-based educational programmes.
2. Educator professional development is pivotal to instigate transformation towards Sustainable food Practices.
3. Sustainability challenges are evolving and requires technical knowledge, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills to respond.