Virtual Mobility Project Workshop held for UEW and University of Derby Students
The University of Education, Winneba (UEW), Ghana and the University of Derby, United Kingdom (UoD-UK), have held a three-day virtual mobility project workshop to enhance the understanding of students on cross-cultural awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 30 students from varied subject areas of both institutions.
The workshop highlighted UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development Framework to develop an online inter-cultural exchange between students from Ghana and the UK to concentrate on the theme of a sustainable future.
The three-day event, which took place from Tuesday, 14th to Thursday, 16th September, 2021, at the Environmental and Geospatial Sciences Laboratory of the Department of Geography Education, UEW via Zoom, emphasised SDG 17, partnership for the goals, which seeks to strengthen implementation of the SDGs and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development.
The training stressed the importance of cooperation, participation and the development of partnerships in achieving the SDGs.
Participants engaged in a range of learner-centered, transformative activities to promote the exchange and understanding from different perspectives relative to the SDGs. Participants also individually identified one SDG of personal significance to them as pre-work and randomly assigned pairings of UK and Ghanaian students for short one-on-one meetings at which they could share their SDG and its significance.
The workshop culminated in group projects to develop an SDG awareness creation activity and associated infographic for use across the two institutions.
The Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences Education, UEW, Prof. Lucy Effeh Attom, who welcomed participants to the occasion, expressed her Faculty’s pride in the efforts of the donor agency and the Lecturers who liaised with their foreign counterpart in hosting the three-day educative programme.
She indicated that the quest for accelerated global sustainability in terms of development was driven by the United Nations SDGs set out in 2015 adding that; nations, organisations and institutions worldwide had forged partnerships for the realisation of those global goals as specified by the SDG 17.
“This virtual mobility project, which is a bilateral educational cooperation between UoD and UEW draws on UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development Framework to create an online-inter-cultural exchange programme that hinges on a sustainable future of our world.
“We fervently anticipate that you will enjoy taking part in creating innovative ideas in sharing information on SDGs and network to raise awareness across these two institutions and beyond through this project workshop,” Prof. Lucy Attom asserted.
The Project Representative for Ghana and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography Education, Mrs. Esther Yeboah Danso-Wiredu (PhD), in her purpose for the workshop during the opening ceremony, underscored the importance of the training intended to aid participants to acquire a cross-cultural understanding of the SDGs to develop the core competencies needed to become a sustainable citizen as outlined in the UNESCO’s Education for SDGs.
She assured participants that the workshop would afford them the opportunity to understand the importance of both individual and cooperative partnerships in realising the SDGs in local communities and global society.
Lecturer in the Department of Geography Education, Dr. Yaw Asamoah gave a presentation on “context for UEW and UoD”.
The three-day virtual mobility event was sponsored by the Association of Commonwealth University.
The UEW students were from the Departments of Economics, Geography, Political Science and History Education.
