New education toolkit

TRAID has launched a new toolkit – Behind the Seams – to support educators to promote education for sustainability. The toolkit explores how we produce, consume and waste clothes to equip young people with the skills and knowledge they need to help shape a more sustainable society.

This in-depth education resource builds on the lessons learned from two decades of delivering educational programmes and activities with schools, councils, businesses and communities.

The toolkit is structured around three themes – production, consumption and waste. It contains lesson plans, worksheets, slideshow presentations and factsheets to support educators to deliver the issues covered in innovative and engaging ways. While aimed at KS3 and KS4 teachers, it has been designed to be used and easily adapted by educators and community leaders to explore these topics with people of all ages.

The lesson plans are designed to be stand alone or can be mixed and matched with other lessons from the same or a different theme. This means that educators can use the toolkit in a variety of ways depending on their own preferences and the types of groups they are working with.

There has never been a greater need to equip the education community with the knowledge, skills and confidence to empower young people to become agents of change. Not only because of the scale of the ecological crisis, but also because of the global commitment to meet the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) in only 11 years. This new toolkit was created to support teachers, schools and community groups to play their unique role in fulfilling this urgent need.