(A report on environmental education, training and awareness in England and Wales)

Following a recommendation from the British Government Panel on Sustainable Development, and a Conference on Environmental Education hosted by the Secretaries of State for the Environment and Education and Employment, the government undertook to issue a strategy for environmental education, training and awareness.

Environment Secretary John Gummer told Parliament that the purpose of the strategy was to provide a clear framework within which a range of initiatives involving schools, education authorities, business and industry and the voluntary sector can fluorish. He went on to say that education in its broadest sense includes not just formal study, but personal awareness, and experience and interests developed over a period of time - at home, at school, college or university, at work, and in the wider community.

The strategy seeks to install in people of all ages, through formal and informal education and training, the concepts of sustainable development and responsible global citizenship; and to develop, renew and reinforce their capacity to address environmental and developmental issues throughout their lives, both at home and at work.

This will be achieved by

• continuing to promote and encourage environmental education and training through relevant programmes and policies, and as part of the continuing dialogue with business and industry, local authorities, the education sector and non-governmental organizations, helping to ensure that appropriate materials for each phase of the education and training process are readily available
• facilitating and supporting initiatives which promote sustainable development and responsible global citizenship to people in the course of their daily lives
• continuing to ensure that the education process is alive to the needs of employers
• establishing suitable arrangements to monitor and encourage progress in the application of sustainable development principles, and the integration of environmental issues in education so that activities may be changed, redirected or reinforced where necessary.

Single copies of The World in our Hands report are available free of charge from:

Mr D.Matthews
RoomC9/11
Department of the Environment
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 3EB
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel.: +44.171.276 4297
Fax: +44.171.276 4789