Lithuania

My name is Kian Iorio and I am a Horticulture student at CETB, Tramore Road Campus. I was lucky enough to be chosen to attend the latest Erasmus project trip to Lithuania as part of the S.I.V.E (Sustainability in vocational education) project. At this stage the project is coming to an end so this trip was focused as a recap more or less of what the different educational institutions had done and showed their policies on sustainability and plans for the future to improve sustainability in their school and local area. This was shown through various presentations from each country and were highly informative. In our presentation we spoke about the planting of native trees on the Tramore Road Campus grounds as well as planting of wildflowers and how we make other students and staff more aware of the necessity and benefit of becoming more environmentally aware and sustainable.

In Lithuania we went on various trips all equally as informative and interesting. We went on a few walking tours around the local area including around the city of Siauliai we were staying in, around the tourist city of Palagna and one on the last day around a Nature school called Jautmalke which consisted of untouched forests and swamps as well as grasslands and architecture from 1800s living which was personally my highlight of the trip. We also went to a historic sight called the hill of crosses which is a sacred site for people of all faiths to come and leave a cross or symbol in remembrance for a person or event. On the Wednesday we had a sustainable city building competition in mixed groups from each country out of materials, which Jack and I won in our group due to great management skills. We also visited the local college for Lithuania’s presentation and a tour of the facilities which are focused on practical skills such as welding and plumbing. The most unique trip was to the Regional Non-Hazardous Waste management centre where we were shown the process of sorting waste into a landfill and draining the liquids out and treating it back into useable water.

Overall the trip was extremely informative and one of the best weeks I’ve had, meeting new friends from different countries and learning about other cultures while also having conversations with likeminded people of all ages about improving biodiversity and taking steps to try create a better future, I hope all schools involved can take inspiration from other countries initiatives and help improve sustainability worldwide in small steps. I would like to thank Erasmus and CETB for this opportunity and hope to do something similar in the future.

Kian Lorio

Nora Lawton 

My name is Nora and I study Horticulture at CETB Tramore Road Campus. I was selected to join the SIVE (Sustainability In Vocational Education) project trip to Lithuania. Funded by the Erasmus+ and managed by CETB, we travelled to Riga in Latvia and Siauliai in Lithuania - Siauliai is located in mid-Lithuania, approx two hours from the capital Vilnius, and two hours from the Baltic coast. In Siauliai, we collaborated teams from Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Spain, Turkey, and Germany.

 We exchanged on best practices and discussed future strategies on sustainability

During the week, each country shared an update on their local projects completed. I was part of the Tramore Road Campus team that presented about our Sustainability efforts and Biodiversity commitments within the campus. During the week we visited the UNESCO world heritage site at the Hill of The Crosses, had a day trip to Palanga and enjoyed a quick dip in the Baltic Sea. Happy to report, it was not baltic 😎

Each country gave an update on sustainability efforts within their institution. The meetings allowed for joined-up thinking and sharing of ideas. I loved my time in Lithuania, the people are fantastic, and it was refreshing to hear from all those present (and to learn from others). Deep thanks to my teachers for selecting my application to join this project - it was a great opportunity to explore a new country, meet kind and fun people - as well as discovering ways to bring Sustainability and Vocational Education in Europe together.  

Nora Lawton