Working with (eco)skills
This method helps individuals reflect on both their personal and eco-related skills through success stories. It encourages self-awareness, skill recognition, and development, and supports participants in connecting their strengths to sustainable career opportunities.
The activity is designed for high school and university students, graduates, and adults. It is suitable for clients who are already engaged in, or sympathetic to, green professions and issues, as well as those still exploring their relationship to environmental and sustainability topics.
It represents a way of introducing sustainability into the traditional “skills through action verbs” approach.
Inspiration for the tool
- M. Shymon – B-creative cards Strengths (handbook)
- EKS – Navigating the world of work. How to find the right one?
Rationale: Why is this needed?
This method fosters self-awareness and recognition of eco-skills—skills that can be developed and applied to create positive change for individuals, communities, and the planet. It highlights how skills are not only useful for career development but also for contributing to a more sustainable future.
Objectives
By the end of the activity, clients/students will:
- identify their eco-skills, how they use them in daily life, which ones they value most, and how they can further develop them;
- deepen their understanding of skills in general and identify additional skills they could strengthen;
- receive feedback from peers on their skills and become more sensitive to the strengths and needs of others (in group settings).
Resources needed
- List of skills expanded to include (eco)skills (Annex 1)
- Skills Development Worksheet (Annex 2)
- paper, post-it, pen, box
Activities
The facilitator explains the purpose of the activity and introduces the concept of skills—technical (e.g., programming, using tools) and soft (e.g., communication, problem solving, teamwork). Skills are acquired through learning and experience, can be continuously developed, and are crucial for adaptability, personal growth, and self-esteem.
Instruction for individual activity:
1 Recall a success story
Invite the client to recall a situation in which they successfully achieved something (work, study, or personal life). More than one situation can be discussed. Guiding questions:
- What was your role?
- Who else was involved?
- How did you approach the situation?
- What was the outcome?
- How did you feel?
2 Connect to sustainability
Ask additional questions to highlight links with broader impact:
- Did this situation affect other people, your community, or the environment?
- Did it contribute to something larger than yourself?
- How does it connect to your values or your sense of purpose?
- If repeated many times, what kind of world would it create?
- How could this experience support long-term well-being (yours, others’, or the planet’s)?
- How would you act if your main goal were to help others or future generations?
3 Identify skills
Share the (eco)skills list (Annex 1). The client selects the skills used in the situation. Support them with questions such as:
- What do you see as the key to your success?
- What did you enjoy most?
- What felt easiest?
- What gave you the strongest sense of satisfaction?
The facilitator may also suggest skills the client overlooked.
4 Prioritise skills
The client selects six important skills and explores them in detail using the worksheet (Annex 2). They reflect on:
how it could be used for meaningful or sustainable work.
- how each skill shows up in their life,
- how well developed it is (self-rating 1–6),
- how they might strengthen it further,
- what they want the skill to serve in their life and in the world, what are new ways they could use this skill for something meaningful, beyond what they’ve done so far
Instruction for group activity:
1 Share success stories
Participants tell their success stories in pairs or small groups. Listeners ask clarifying questions and note down the skills they observe (using post-its). These are later added to the speaker’s personal skill list (Annex 1).
2 Peer feedback
Each participant reviews the skill lists identified by others (from their pair or small group) and chooses the three skills they consider most important. These are written on separate post-its, folded, and placed in a common box.
3 Skill exchange
Participants draw three post-its from the box. If they are unsatisfied, they can negotiate trades until everyone is content or time is up.
4 Discussion
A group reflection follows, with guiding questions such as:
- How did the activity make you feel?
- How did you perceive yourself and others?
- Which skills were hardest to acquire, and why?
- Which skills do you consider essential to your “top skills” list?
- How did this activity help you see yourself more clearly?
- Which skills make you feel most connected to your values, other people, or the natural world?
- What did you learn today about your own (eco)skills?
- Which skills could you explore or strengthen further?
- How do your skills connect to career choices you might make?
- Which of your skills could support work that contributes to people, communities, or the environment?
- If you picture a future where these skills are widely used, what kind of world could that create?
- Which new opportunities or professions could emerge if you applied your skills differently?
- What is one concrete step you could take to use your skills for positive change?
Sustainability-related reflection questions from the individual activity can also be used.
Reflections/Consolidation of learning
The facilitator works with a comprehensive skills list that integrates eco-skills. They observe how clients include these in their choices, what meanings they attach to them, and how important they are. The conversation can then be directed toward green themes, or participants can be asked from the outset to select situations where they “brought something to the world” (e.g., related to environmental or social contributions).