Our Story

The Climate Literacy Training Programme was created to help provide a clear understanding of climate science, and the measures we can take as a business, individual, or a community, to help raise awareness of our impact on the climate and help reduce the carbon we emit.

It gives people the tools and knowledge to make informed decisions in the future and the ability to pass on that knowledge to other people. It is a fully accredited training course that takes people through the science of climate change, what’s caused it, how it’s impacted societies, and what we can do about it. It covers the local picture in cumbria as well as the global and national state of affairs.

We have created bespoke courses that can be accessed by anyone, regardless of age or background, and we can help support delivering decarbonisation plans of organisations and communities. We have teamed up with expert training providers from Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAFs) who run the training programme, and provide their decades worth of practical emission-reduction expertise, in-depth knowledge of local activity and best practice, as well as significant training experience.

The Challenge

This project was started in response to huge demand from individuals and organisations for interactive, empowering training that taught knowledge. People who take part in this programme are taught the ability to express and apply that knowledge and the ability to weigh up and make decisions about carbon impact in any situation that life throws up, at home, at work, or in the community.

Initially we had to think about what we were aiming to achieve. Whether we were aiming to just teach knowledge, or also the ability to articulate that knowledge. We had to consider the learning styles and what would be most effective, especially given that we would be teaching a wide range of age groups with various skill sets.

Hence we wanted to involve our audience in the design of the programme and in the development of the materials, whilst also staying true to the key messages we wanted to convey. Another challenge was the marketing and admin of the project, without which, it would struggle to get off the ground. It was important to factor this into the budget, given the significant amount of time and resources required to ensure we were targeting the right amount of people.

Our Solution

The training programme consisted of a mix of taught content, videos, breakout discussions and interactive exercises, some of which are reflective, others of which are quick-fire, fast-paced Q&A. Our specialist training providers are very experience in working with groups of mixed knowledge levels and we used a real mixture of delivery to ensure all learning styles were engaged.

The programme presents a clear framework for understanding the climate crisis, how soon we need to act, the scale of the action, and the individuals’ part within the bigger picture. It gives people the ability to develop their own action plans, and to develop their own training sesisons for others; passing on knowledge and awareness is key in this fight against climate change, and the training programme plants the seed for climate awareness.

The project has enjoyed considerable early success, having recruited 20 volunteers from across Cumbria, to run climate training and activities in their communities. These volunteers were given the confidence to communicate about climate change among their own networks, allowing them to help others in their communities to play their part in the journey to Net Zero in Cumbria.

Want to find out more?

For more information about the Carbon Literacy Training programme head to
https://cafs.org.uk/our-projects/community-climate-training/

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