The Skills Partnership

The Skills Partnership (TSP) has a genuine concern and commitment to how it supports the environment, locally, nationally and on a global basis. For this purpose we have agreed to adhere to the revised UK strategy for sustainable development ‘Securing the Future’ (DEFRA 2005). The five shared UK Principles of Sustainable development as advised by DEFRA are:

• Living within environmental limits.
• Ensuring a Strong Healthy and Just Society.
• Achieving a sustainable economy.
• Using sound science responsibly.
• Promoting good governance

Furthermore, we support the view that government performance is measured against a series of targets within the Framework for Sustainable Development on the Government Estate, which encompass:

• social progress which recognises the needs of everyone
• effective protection of the environment
• prudent use of natural resources
• maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth and employment
• the goal of sustainable development is to enable all people throughout the world to satisfy their basic needs and enjoy a better quality of life without compromising the quality of life of future generations’.

TSP has acknowledged that although it aims to offer a highly personalised service, this should not detract from it’s  commitment to the environment, or from meeting the diverse needs of all people it engages with, promoting social cohesion and inclusion and promoting equality of opportunity.

Please read on to find more out about The Skills Partnership’s Environmental Sustainable Development Policy:

Policy background.

During our organisations development we will ensure that each of our partners are committed to our approach and that we constantly monitor against this through our management structure.

We utilise the expertise that we have in the partnership engaging people’s creativity, energy and diversity. Our key project outcomes are about encouraging individuals to access employment and those employed to progress their life long learning ambitions and obtain higher levels of recognised qualifications. In this respect, the projects we deliver support individuals needs that enable them to access and compete over their life time in the labour market. Improved employability prospects are shown to provide individuals with a better quality of life, which in turn will can also be a benefit to the regional and national economy. In all of these activities we advise participants and stakeholders of our commitment to environmental sustainability and encourage them to assist us in working to the  principals of sustainable development as outlined above.

3. Policy Implementation

An holistic approach is applied to supporting the health and well being of individuals in order to reduce their economic and social exclusion.  In order to achieve this, our tutuors and trainers are activly encouraged to work with learners to support activities which address the link between poor health and worklessness, both by integrating health improvement support and information with skills development.  This is particularly relevant where learners are working towards attainment of  the Certificate in Health Related Exercise for Children, Gym Instructors Award 2 and Instructing Exercise and Fitness.

We regularly monitor success rates and feedback from our tutors, networks and local communities so that we understand conditions and circumstances that may affect minority and excluded groups from engaging in sustainable learning. We work together to discover the reasons why groups may be excluded from continuing their learning and take action to overcome these barriers.

We promote our activity by use of ICT and other virtual communication tools in  order to maximise access to provision through innovative delivery methods which minimise material waste.

One of our aims is that we limit the use of paper waste. We ask all of our staff to not print emails unless they are necessary or to produce materials surplus to requirements.  Our organisation is committed to recycling redundant materials and we also require this of our partners. The organisation is committed to the use of recycled paper.

We  work with all of our partners and the project teams to ensure shared transport is a first consideration and where appropriate the use of public transport.  When possible, staff do not make multiple journeys to the same location..

We always look at local venues for local delivery to ensure we reach learners who may have no access to transport, thereby ensuring accessibility to our learning interventions and minimising travel.

Sustainable development is focused on providing a better quality of life for everyone now and for generations to come.  This is achieved through considering and balancing the long-term effects of social, economic and environmental issues and impacts. (Securing the Future – UK Sustainable Development Strategy, 2005)

Our organisation is developing strategies to spread good practice from previous programmes that other training providers have also been involved in and will examine appropriate methods to disseminate environmental practice with partners and stakeholders.