The primary purpose of the Time4Sustainable Development project is to extend and develop the competences of educators/trainers and other personnel who support employee development, in facilitating the practical implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The concept of combining Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with Continuous Professional Development (CPD) was first developed by one of the project partners in Belgium and realised in an enormously successful project with support from the Flemish government. It has delivered more than 250,000 hrs of CSR in its Belgian association under the title of: Time for Society.

In the Time4Sustainable Development (T4SD) project we will build on this successful concept, taking it one step further through the additional integration of the SDGs.

Our proposal is simple: during CPD-hours employees give a part of their time to:

1. a non-profit organisation in need through the implementation of a project (e.g. cultural, social or environmental) that they are interested in and they design, plan and deliver a tailor-made CSR project that addresses the SDGs in cooperation with the societal organisation; and/or
2. ‘spot an idea’ for how a combination of CSR and SDGs could be implemented into their work, and then design, plan and deliver a tailor-made project to address this.

Through a customised, blended learning programme the enterprises and their teams of employees will be attracted to develop a practical approach to CSR/SDG implementation and to create sustainable societal impact together. This informal learning and development programme will help employees to acquire and further develop their skills through a practical and competence based learning approach.

In terms of concrete products T4SD will develop:

• A Stocktaking Report and EU Company Engagement Strategy
• The T4SD Competence Framework
• T4SD for Adult Educators/Trainers: A CPD Pathway
• The T4SD Learning Platform
• The T4SD Train-the-Trainer Programme
• The T4SD Roadmap

The project will train 18 adult educators/trainers who will then pilot the approach with enterprises and employees in their respective countries. At least 200 employees will be directly involved in the piloting. 160 more professionals will be informed about the projects outputs and the results of the piloting via multiplier events held in each country.  At these multiplier events they will also be instructed on how to apply the T4SD approach.