Encouraging student’s generic competencies by promoting the Inner Development Goals in higher education programs to promote students’ values, skills, and competencies: A learning outcome from a bachelor’s degree in Work-life science

Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important topic across the world. Since the publication of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by the United Nations, awareness of this effort is growing. In 2006, a section in the Swedish Higher Education Act was formed, stating that: “In the course of their operations, HEIs shall promote sustainable development to assure for present and future generations a sound and healthy environment, economic and social welfare and justice” (Swedish Council for Higher Education, 2015). Hence, if graduates carry sustainability awareness, skills, and values into their work life, not only will the private sector benefit, but societal benefits will also be high. Universities have the potential to act as facilitators, bridging research efforts to develop a more sustainably oriented society. Furthermore, since the Bologna process in 2007 there has been an increased focus on students’ learning outcomes and generic competencies (Berg, 2016). However, initiatives for incorporating the SDGs in curricula have mostly been technical and economic solutions (Pöllänen et al., 2023). Since these solutions have proven to be insufficient, initiatives studies have emerged on the nexus of inner and outer sustainability and, the importance of internal dimensions has come into focus as a strategy for a deliberate cultural transformation achieving the SDGs. (e.g., Pöllänen et al., 2023; Cooper & Gibson, 2022). Inner Development Goals (IDG) is a global project that has compiled and published material on competencies being important for the development of students’ generic competencies for sustainable development. Hence, the IDGs are a toolkit that promotes these competencies (Inner Development Goals, 2023).