Abstract:

Global issues such as sustainability and green skills have become an integral part of many educational programs, courses, or classroom activities. The role of teachers and education in achieving the global sustainable development and greener economy refers generally to promote student’s active engagement towards more sustainable practices and lifestyles, as well as to cover required future green qualifications. The conducted research was aimed at identification of the current state of knowledge of the green skills and sustainable practices of business program students aged between 16 and 22 years from four EU countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece and Hungary). Based on questionnaire survey 285 responses were collected and statistically tested. The statistical analysis based on correlation and post-hoc tests was used to identify dependencies of the level of knowledge in 15 sustainability aspects; field of study; and the level of education. The research uncovered certain level of student’s knowledge in sustainable development and environmental protections as well as green entrepreneurship and green skills. The lower level was identified in the field of green economy and nature-based solutions. Subsequently, the research revealed an inverse relation between increasing education and the level of knowledge of nature-based solutions and green transformation. These results are important from the point of view of understanding the level of knowledge in the field of sustainability with the reflection of different geographical regions and their specific needs to better tailored the future green and sustainability curricula. This research is acknowledged to the Degrebe Erasmus+ project that aims to develop a digital tool which will focus specifically on the agricultural sector and provide in-depth knowledge about environmental and climate-change challenges. Though the practical outcome of this research is aimed to design the future developed gamified tool by Degrebe according to current students’ needs.

Keywords:

Sustainability, green skills, green economy, knowledge, students, gamification.