As part of the EduEnvi project, Professor Elisabeth Agerbæk and Ellen Houmøller from UCL University of Applied Science, Odense, Denmark, held a teacher-training workshop in Kokshetau, Kazakhstan for participants from Sh.Ualikhanov Kokshetau State University, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, KazNU and M. Auezov South-Kazakhstan State University, SKSU.

The purpose of the teacher-training week was to introduce a practice of industry/university collaboration in teaching Sustainable Waste Management modules to students. This is a practice long used and grandfathered at UCL. For this purpose Elisabeth Agerbæk and Ellen Houmøller have written “A Manual on How to Cooperate with Industry on a Problem within Sustainable Waste Management”, which was distributed before the workshop as well as a number of relevant texts relating to the concepts of Innovation and Transfer.

At the workshop, the professors from Denmark introduced a method for involving an industry challenge in an interdisciplinary teaching project. To make a long story short, the method involves using whiteboards and magnetic “mini tiles” to granulate learning goals in a subject, and align them to what solving industry challenges will mean for the students.

The workshop lasted 5 days and was very well received as this quote from the evaluation of the week from one of the participants shows: “We have had a great learning about how to get in contact with and use collaboration with industry for learning. We can clearly see, how this collaboration will bring new ideas to the company.” Another participant stated “This workshop made me understand today’s problem: Theoretical part of the teaching is not connected enough with the practical. When you collaborate with industry, this connection becomes much more clear.”

The teachers from Denmark had a great trip and was overwhelmed by the hospitality of the teachers from Kazakhstan and the beauty of the country.