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Future climate disruptors will be trained by a new degree course, a company involved in the scheme has said.
Black Mountains College in Talgarth, Powys, has launched a degree in sustainable futures.
It partnered with Cardiff Metropolitan University, the Brecon Beacons National Park and industry partners.
The university claims the course is the first in the world devoted entirely to climate action and was a response “to the climate and ecological emergency.”
The course will take place partly in the classroom, but will include industry internships and outdoor teaching on the university’s farm campus.
It also incorporates the natural landscape, the senses and the arts: students are encouraged to immerse themselves in nature, feeling, hearing and even savoring the world around them. The idea is to reinforce the knowledge they learn and forge a deep connection with the world. around them.
Executive director Ben Rawlance said the university was founded in the spirit that climate change is not just a scientific problem, but “a problem of human behavior, of values, of systems, of politics and economics.”
Jodie Bond, from the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority, said: “Nature and weather emergencies are very important.
“We cannot face alone these great challenges that we have as a society, we have to work together.”
Mr Rawlance said the world of work was already changing, with corporations employing sustainability and climate officials, and this course was about “giving students the tools to imagine a different future.”
“These young people are going to be highly valued by the industry because they are going to have that holistic vision of the world,” he added.
“They will understand how change happens and learn theories of organizational change.”
Those skills include critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, and compassion.
One of the industry partners is the consulting firm Accenture, which employs 750,000 people worldwide.
Chief Responsibility Officer Peter Lacy said there was an “insatiable” demand for expertise in the fields of sustainability and systems change.
“[Demand] The type of disruptors that can bring new ideas, new solutions to problems, is going to increase exponentially.”
Alison Stunt studies horticulture at university and said the approach was not purely intellectual: “It’s not academic in that sense, it’s not book learning.
“It’s learning from being in nature and experiencing things with our whole body, rather than just reading about it and learning about it intellectually.”
Mr Rawlance admitted that it was really difficult for people “who were brought up in these very strict degree programs to understand”, but it was “obvious to the young people who are coming up now”.
“So this is not only urgent and necessary, but it’s responsive to the market. This is what kids want.”
Black Mountains College has received over £500,000 in lottery funding and is in the process of raising £1.5m of social investment to fund the launch of the course.
