The Environmental Training in Europe has various variables Depending on each country, local environmental policies and the awareness that citizens have regarding all issues related to the care and preservation of the Environment.
Comprehensive Environmental Training
There is a very clear divergence between the so-called Eastern European bloc, which recently began to pay attention to the environmental issue at the end of the 80s, and that of Western Europe, which has been dealing with this problem since the 70s.
In reference to the implementation of Environmental Training in the various countries that belong to the EU Each situation is particular, whether due to the initiatives (or lack thereof) of the corresponding Ministries, local and corporate environmental responsibility and the orientation of education (in private and public centers).
Today almost all the nations that make up the EU They teach some degree of basic Environmental Training at school levelboth interdisciplinary (as part of another subject such as Biology or Geography or through recreational educational activities) or disciplinary, creating a special and specific subject.
The same thing happens at the level of secondary education, where although the topic is delved deeper, there are countries that ensure that these spaces are truly taken advantage of. to train future citizens aware of being part of an environment that it is necessary to care, respect and protect.
In the tertiary cycles is where the big differences are seen, since there are countries like the Nordic ones, which are betting at the public university level (in addition to the private sphere) for the various degrees of Environmental training for more than four decades.
Environmental Training in EU countries
Sweden and Finland have been pioneers in this Environmental Trainingsince they were also the first to take measures to combat the environmental crisis and their citizens have extensive knowledge of the subject. Environmentalism in these countries is lived and studied with awareness and naturalness, a concept that is difficult to understand for many Europeans from other nations.
Much progress has also been made in Germany, since in 1980 they established their school Environmental Training objectives and for secondary school, eight years later they also incorporated it into professional-level teaching and in 1991 a series of changes were made, aimed at making said Training respond more directly to the protection of the Environment.
In Austria, Environmental Training began to develop in 1984, when the departments that depended on the Ministry of the Environment created a working group in order to protect the Austrian Environment and Nature. From there, progress has been made steadily towards comprehensive vocational training, both public and private.
In France, Environmental Training is integrated into compulsory schooling. The same happens with young people and adolescents who must complete their studies with basic environmental knowledge that allows them to proactively integrate into society and the offer of Environmental Training in other more advanced instances is really very broad throughout the country.
In Denmark, Environmental Education is taught through various activities supported by local centers or the Ministry of Education, since at the school and first cycle level, they depend on local authorities while the Ministry controls higher schools and Universities, which They provide a multidisciplinary and varied range of options.
As in many other countries, the Environmental Training in Portugal follows a development parallel to the incorporation of environmental problems in the state structures and was truly integrated into teaching, starting in 1986, date of publication of the Law of Bases of the Educational System, which aims to achieve the full development of individuals and the training of citizens committed to the protection of the Environment. and in Consumer Education.
Following the education reform of 1988/9, the UK Government established a series of objectives directly related to Environmental Training. Currently, it has placed Sustainable Development in a prominent place in British politics, creating organizations to defend the Environment, such as the British Government Committee on Sustainable Development, and promoting Environmental training at all levels.
Considering that Italy is a country with a centralized educational system at both the primary and secondary education levels, all of which are administered by the Ministry of Public Instruction, the implementation of Environmental Training was intrinsic to the awareness of governments and was applied to all levels of public and private education.
Greece is another centralized country for educational purposes. The Ministry of Education and Culture executes all fundamental actions and makes the appropriate decisions. Only universities enjoy a certain autonomy, so in the application of public Environmental Training depended entirely on the State and began to be taught in schools, institutes and universities since 1991 and to date has not stopped growing in content and options.
In Spain there are always processes of administrative decentralization and changes in educational systems underway. This very heterogeneous situation makes it difficult to adopt measures and make decisions about the development of a global policy on Environmental Training at school and secondary education levelsbut at the tertiary level the demand for the various training options increases day by day and the private offer is an ideal complement to Environmental Training.