Sustainability

20Education and Human Resource Development for Sustainability

Anita Talan and R. D Tyagi

INRS, Université du Québec, Québec, Canada

20.1 Introduction

The ideology of sustainable development and its implications for human resource development (HRD) and the education system are of great importance as they respond to the dilemmas that confront sustainable projects worldwide. Sustainable development is a broad concept that integrates education and HRD to analyze global society and political economy. The education and HRD systems are implemented together at national and international levels toward global sustainability. The role of HRD and education systems in every sector can be seen from two points of view: on one side it is based on the influence on the social dimension, and, on the other, the indicators affecting sustainability. The focus is on the education system to produce world class students and human resources (HR) to attain sustainability defining the quality of learning outcomes. The outcomes can be examined by having in-depth information on policy levels and the contextual factors that shape these outcomes so that they have a high gain in investments from private and social organizations for improvements in education and HR. Therefore, increased levels of education empower the general public to change their own views and take responsibility for a sustainable future.

This chapter focuses on sustainable development, the relationships between education, HRD and sustainability, ...