Pilot Project on GCE in Vocational Education

Rochefort-Jemelle Youth Explore Food Sovereignty

Introduction

To build a fair and equitable future for all, critical thinking and global awareness must be taught to today’s youth. BeGlobal seeks to equip young people with the tools and knowledge they need to become conscious and engaged citizens, capable and enthusiastic to actively participate in their communities. Strengthening Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in teaching is one of the relevant initiatives within this mission. As noted in the study conducted by our partners at UCLL, students in vocational education are often a neglected audience in GCE projects.

In cooperation with Entraide & Fraternité (E&F), an international solidarity NGO, and the Athénée Royal Rochefort-Jemelle, a school in the province of Namur, BeGlobal facilitated a pilot project to strengthen GCE skills among young people in vocational education.

Project objectives

With two objectives in mind, the pilot project sought to:

Adapt teaching materials to spark the interest of vocational education students, and;
Encourage young people in vocational education to become responsible citizens.

Three indicators of success were established by E&F to assess progress toward the second objective. These were:

Students became more curious as a result of the project;
Students are considering futures other than those they had in mind before the project began;
Students feel their self-confidence has grown.

The theme that was used to explore GCE with the Rochefort-Jemelle students is the concept of ecological and just transition. More specifically, this theme was explored through the lens of food sovereignty.

The “See – Judge – Act” method, which “is the DNA of all projects carried out by E&F,” was used to guide each training session for students throughout the project. This method aims to train individuals in social action and transforming the world based on their personal experiences and by actively involving individuals in their own learning and reflection.

Putting the project into action

The project took place from February to May 2025, in the form of six meetings with the students selected for this initiative. The youth, all between the 4th and 6th years of secondary school, came from different specializations: sales, childcare, masonry, IT, and education.

The project, led by E&F, alternated between participatory thematic classroom sessions, individual reflections, field visits — including an eco-construction site and a local cooperative — and opportunities for sharing.

This multidimensional approach drew on different learning styles and facilitated student participation and engagement.

For example, during the fourth meeting, students were encouraged to think about the ideal world in which they would like to live in 10 to 15 years. This activity was based on the pillars of change explored in a previous session, meaning that students had already acquired the knowledge and resources to participate in this reflection, which took place in small groups.

Following this exercise, the young people visited an eco-construction site and an agroecological farm —visits that allowed them to meet people who had thought about their ideal world and were implementing it with their own hands.

This visit had a profound impact on the group. The students in the masonry program even asked their teachers to take them back after the pilot project ended, inspired by this encounter and by the immersion in the field.

Results

The results of the pilot project are very positive overall. To assess the impact on the students, two different evaluations were carried out.

The first evaluation session, Self-Positioning within Space, was conducted using a self-assessment format. This was carried out with the entire group, and the students were able to see their classmates’ reflections. This public self-assessment format led to a very pronounced group effect. According to this evaluation session, there was only a slight change in the curiosity and self-confidence levels of the young participants.

The second assessment methodology was used to complement Self-Positioning within Space. The World Cafe gave young people the opportunity to discuss topics in small groups, divided by theme. Each discussion station asked students what they thought, did, or plan to do differently after participating in the project. The results of this evaluation were very positive and contradicted several results of the Self-Positioning within Space evaluation. For example, “while no students reported feeling more curious in the first evaluation, the majority reported having researched the topics covered during the project on social media (which they had not done before).”

Overall, many students have changed their habits in their personal lives or are advising their family and friends to change their consumption habits and think about their relationships with more vulnerable people. Several students have indicated that they want to go on humanitarian trips because of the project, something that the youth did not consider before. Teachers and the school psychologist observed changes in the students in terms of self-confidence and the development of curiosity regarding the themes explored with eh use of GCE.

Conclusion

The success of the project can be measured through the achievement of the two key objectives set at the start of the process, but especially through the visible positive effects the project had on the participating students. The cooperation established between BeGlobal, Entraide & Fraternité, and the Athénée Royal Rochefort-Jemelle has had a positive influence on the youth in the program and has demonstrated that TVET students should not be overlooked when developing GCE initiatives to train and support the next generation in Belgium.

Global Citizenship Education in vocational education

As part of the “Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in vocational education” project, two pilot projects were launched during the 2024-2025 school year.

Two schools, each located on either side of the linguistic border, developed and implemented a GCE pilot project in collaboration with NGOs. In Flanders, KTA CLW Bruges collaborated with the Djapo–Studio Globo consortium. In Wallonia-Brussels, a pilot project was also set up: a collaboration between Athénée Royal Rochefort-Jemelle and Entraide & Fraternité.

Would you like to find out more about the two pilot projects?

The two pilot projects put into practice the recommendations that were drafted by our colleagues at the UCLL, who are the authors of the study “GCE in vocational education.”

Would you like to find out more about the study?

The project thus aims to contribute to the implementation of concrete measures to address global citizenship education with young people in vocational education, in order to motivate them and raise their awareness of the need to commit to a fairer and more sustainable world.

Click here for more information about the study

Citations

Enabel. (2025). Projet de renforcement de l’éducation à la citoyenneté mondiale dans l’enseignement qualifiant – 2024-2025. Rapport d’évaluation. Entraide & Fraternité en collaboration avec l’Athénée Royal Rochefort-Jemelle.