VET in Green Transition: Ecological Imagination as a Professional Competence in the eNaBlS Greek Living Lab

Europe’s ambition to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 depends not only on political will and technological innovation, but on a skilled and ecologically literate workforce. The European Green Deal, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, and the European Skills Agenda all converge on one urgent message: vocational education and training (VET) must be at the centre of the green transition, not on its periphery.

Yet VET institutions have historically been underrepresented in sustainability education research and in the design of green competence frameworks. The eNaBlS Horizon Europe project (Education and Nature-Based Solutions: enable society to bend the curve for biodiversity) directly challenges this gap. By embedding Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) into both higher education and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), eNaBlS positions VET practitioners as essential agents of ecological and social change.

• Elisavet Petridi: e.petridi@ideatraining.gr
• Tilemachos Kotronis:t.kotronis@ideatraining.gr

• Dora Psoma: d.psoma@ideatraining.gr

   

It is within this policy framework that IDEA Training, as a TVET partner of the eNaBlS Greek Living Lab, designed and delivered the workshop series “Speculative Futures: Environmental and Ecological Imagination as a Competence for Practitioners.” This article reports on the final event held on 7 April 2026 in Thessaloniki, reflects on its methodology and outcomes, and makes the case that VET institutions are not passive recipients of green policy. They are its most powerful delivery mechanism.

IDEA’s Vocational School: 30 Years of Building Strong Skills

IDEA Training is not a newcomer to the VET landscape. For over 30 years, IDEA has operated as a Licensed Lifelong Learning Centre in Thessaloniki, providing vocational education and training programmes that directly address the needs of the labour market and society in Northern Greece and beyond.

IDEA’s VET programmes are built around three interconnected skills pillars that align directly with EU policy priorities:

• Digital skills: equipping learners for a transformed economy
• Green skills: preparing practitioners for sustainability transitions
• Business and entrepreneurship skills: fostering social and environmental enterprise

IDEA’s programmes are delivered both onsite and via synchronous and asynchronous e-learning, reaching learners across Northern Greece and in remote areas with fewer educational opportunities. Government-funded VET programmes specifically target individuals facing unemployment, social exclusion, discrimination, and poverty, reflecting a deep commitment to an inclusive green transition where no one is left behind.

IDEA’s institutional identity as a VET provider is inseparable from its participation in eNaBlS. The workshop series described in this article was not a standalone research activity. It was an expression of IDEA’s core mission: building the green skills of working professionals and VET learners who will shape Greece’s sustainable future.

IDEA also provides Open Education and Training Programmes for intra-corporate and inter-company training across business and social and environmental entrepreneurship, making it one of the few VET institutions in Greece operating simultaneously at the level of individual learners, enterprises, and European research projects. This multi-level reach makes IDEA a uniquely positioned actor in translating EU green policy into vocational practice.

Nature-Based Solutions and the EU GreenComp Framework

Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) are defined by the European Commission as solutions “inspired and supported by nature, cost-effective, simultaneously providing environmental, social and economic benefits, and helping build resilience”. From urban greening and biodiversity corridors to circular economy practices and ecological restoration, NBS represent a growing field of professional practice that spans architecture, engineering, urban planning, environmental law, and the arts.

The EU GreenComp framework, the European Sustainability Competence Framework, identifies four clusters of competences essential for navigating the ecological crisis: Futures Literacy, Critical Thinking, Promoting Nature, and Collective Action. These are not abstract academic skills. They are precisely the competences that VET practitioners in technical, creative, and environmental fields need to apply in real-world professional contexts, the practitioners that IDEA’s Vocational School serves every day.

The eNaBlS project recognises this alignment. The eNaBlS Greek Living Lab, coordinated by CERTH’s Institute of Bio-Economy and Agro-Technology (iBO-CERTH) with the support of FOCUS STC and IDEA Training, is specifically anchored in education-to-practice pathways for VET learners, co-designing skills development programmes that translate NBS principles into professional action.

The Workshop: Designed for VET Practitioners

The six-week workshop series, totalling 24 teaching hours, was deliberately designed for VET learners and working professionals in technical and creative fields, drawing directly from IDEA’s Vocational School expertise in designing programmes for diverse professional audiences.

Participants came from interconnected disciplines: architecture, engineering, law, arts, and environmental practice. This interdisciplinary mix is not incidental. It reflects the real-world composition of IDEA’s VET learner base in Greece, where professionals across sectors are increasingly called upon to contribute to sustainability transitions without always having received formal green skills training. The workshop was designed to fill precisely this gap.

Building on earlier Greek Living Lab workshops focused on urban transformation, biodiversity, and sustainable neighbourhoods, the “Speculative Futures” series introduced a distinct methodological layer: the use of ecological imagination, storytelling, and futures-oriented thinking as professional competences. Rather than treating sustainability as a technical problem with fixed solutions, the workshop challenged participants to develop the capacity to envision possible futures, a skill that IDEA’s pedagogical tradition of learner-centred, experiential education is uniquely equipped to deliver.

Methodology: Learner-Centred and Participatory

The workshop methodology drew directly from IDEA’s educational approach and the participatory principles of the Greek Living Lab model:

• Short expert inputs combined with facilitated discussion and peer exchange
• Moodboards, visual experimentation, and collaborative creative exercises
• Readings and structured reflection connecting theory to lived professional experience
• Speculative scenario-building: participants developed their own future narratives
• Collective presentation and critical dialogue during the final event

This structure enabled participants to connect theoretical sustainability frameworks with real-world professional challenges, while developing competences directly applicable in their vocational and social contexts.

The Final Event: 7 April 2026

The final event marked the completion of the workshop series. Organised and facilitated by the IDEA team, Dora Psoma, Tilemachos Kotronis, and Elisavet Petridi, participants presented their speculative future scenarios and creative projects, exploring how societies may adapt to environmental and social crises through sustainable and nature-based approaches.

Themes explored included ecological crisis and post-crisis futures, memory and survival, circular economy practices, re-use and recycling, and the role of collective action in environmental transformation.

Alongside the presentations, IDEA administered an open-ended GreenComp-based assessment questionnaire, evaluating participant development across the four following NBS competences identified by 3s in collaboration with IDEA:

• Futures Literacy: the ability to anticipate and navigate uncertain ecological futures
• Critical Thinking: questioning assumptions embedded in dominant development models
• Promoting Nature: recognising the intrinsic value of biodiversity and ecosystems
• Collective Action: capacity to collaborate across disciplines and sectors for sustainability

Using GreenComp as an assessment lens is itself a policy statement: it connects IDEA’s VET practice directly to the European Sustainability Competence Framework, demonstrating that vocational institutions can operationalise EU-level competence agendas at the practitioner level and should be resourced and recognised for doing so.

Participants’ Viewpoint

Participants’ responses to the open-ended questions further highlighted their reflections on the role of NBS and the competences developed throughout the workshop. For example, in response to the question “To what extent do you believe that Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) effectively address environmental problems?”, participants stated:

“Definitely to a significant degree, as long as they are implemented on a broader scale and accompanied by larger-scale actions, e.g. sustainable neighbourhoods.”

And

“To a considerable extent. The adoption of environmentally friendly attitudes and behaviours is a starting point.”

Additionally, regarding the question “Among the following competences – Promoting Nature, Critical Thinking, Collective Action and Futures Literacy – which do you believe you developed the most during the workshop and your project?”, participants referred particularly to the importance of collaboration, collective thinking and future oriented reflection.

Responses included:

“Collective Action, because we engaged in brainstorming that helped me in finding solutions”

“The workshop highlighted the importance of collective action as a crucial factor in generating proposals”.

Outcomes and Policy Implications for VET

The “Speculative Futures” workshop delivers five clear lessons for VET policy and practice:

1. Creativity and ecological imagination are professional competences, not extras. The capacity to envision sustainable futures is a skill that VET curricula can and must develop. IDEA’s workshop provided proof of concept that arts-based and speculative methodologies can be successfully integrated into TVET settings, producing measurable GreenComp competence gains.
2. Interdisciplinary VET learning works and reflects reality. When architects, engineers, artists, and legal professionals learn alongside one another, it reflects the reality of green transition work. Addressing sustainability challenges requires people from different fields to collaborate, share perspectives, and work across traditional professional boundaries. VET institutions that design for interdisciplinarity will better prepare their learners for green economy demands.
3. VET is a driver of sustainability policy, not just a recipient. IDEA’s 30-year track record as a VET institution, combined with its active role in eNaBlS, shows that vocational schools are capable of designing, testing, and validating innovative NBS competence-building approaches. This experiential evidence should directly inform national and EU-level VET reform agendas.
4. Living Labs are powerful VET infrastructure. The Greek Living Lab model brings together diverse stakeholders in a hands-on learning environment rooted in real urban and environmental challenges. By connecting education with practical community needs, it provides a valuable example of how VET institutions can play an active role in developing green skills while fostering collaboration, innovation, and community engagement. IDEA is already demonstrating this model in action.
5. Inclusive green transition requires VET institutions with a social mandate. IDEA’s commitment to reaching learners facing unemployment, social exclusion, and geographic disadvantage ensures that the green transition is not only for those already well-positioned. Building green competences in diverse, underrepresented social groups is a VET responsibility and an EU imperative.

Conclusion: VET Must Lead

The “Speculative Futures” workshop is more than a report of an educational event. It is a demonstration of what VET institutions like IDEA can do when given the space, resources, and European partnerships to act as full agents of the green transition.

With over three decades of experience building professional skills for diverse learners across Northern Greece, IDEA’s Vocational School brings something to the eNaBlS project that no university can replicate: direct, sustained, and socially committed engagement with the VET learners who will actually implement Nature-Based Solutions in cities, communities, and workplaces.

As the EU works to align its Green Deal ambitions with workforce realities, VET institutions must have a seat at the policy table, not as implementers of frameworks designed elsewhere, but as co-creators of the green skills ecosystem Europe urgently needs. IDEA is ready to lead that conversation. We invite VET institutions, policymakers, and European partners to engage with our work and join us in making the VET voice heard.