Duurzaamheidscoördinator Onderwijs | Concernbeleid & Strategie

The core mission is to move sustainability from a collection of scattered individual initiatives into a structural, organisation-wide part of both how mboRijnland works and what it teaches. In practice, you start by mapping the current state of sustainability within the education programmes, identifying where it already exists, where opportunities lie and where development is needed. From that reconnaissance, you build your own plan of action with objectives and concrete steps, then own its execution and monitor progress. A large share of the role is enabling others rather than doing sustainability solo. You support the colleges in developing a sustainability vision suited to their sector and aligned with mboRijnland's overall approach, and you help teams translate that vision into everyday educational practice, processes and working methods. You initiate, stimulate and support sustainable and circular initiatives, and you make existing efforts visible and connected so people can learn from one another. Student participation is a distinct responsibility: you actively involve students in sustainability. You also organise or facilitate professional development for staff on sustainability and circularity, and you build an internal and external network for inspiration, knowledge-sharing and collaboration. Finally, you prepare mboRijnland's participation in the SustainaBul MBO, act as a ranker in the peer-review, and take part in the SustainaBul learning network, working closely with the existing Sustainability Coordinator within the institution's current policy.

This role is essentially a masterclass in organisational change within education. You will learn how to translate an abstract ambition, embedding sustainability structurally, into a concrete plan of action with goals, actions and progress monitoring, then actually steer that plan through a large institution. That is a skill set few sustainability roles offer at this level of autonomy. You will gain deep exposure to the Whole School Approach and the SDGs as operational frameworks, learning how to apply them to curricula, processes and institutional culture rather than treating them as reporting labels. Working with colleges to develop their own sustainability visions will sharpen your ability to coach teams and facilitate strategy at a decentralised level. The SustainaBul MBO dimension adds a sector-wide learning layer: participating in the peer-review as a ranker and joining the national learning network exposes you to how other vocational institutions tackle the same challenges. On top of that, mboRijnland's own academy and the emphasis on professionalising staff create opportunities for training in facilitation, circularity and educational innovation.

The ideal candidate combines a genuine grounding in sustainability or circularity with real experience inside an educational setting. mboRijnland asks for hbo+ working and thinking level, demonstrable sustainability knowledge, and a track record of project-based work, change trajectories or policy development in education or a comparable complex organisation. A pure sustainability specialist without classroom or institutional context would likely struggle. Equally important are the soft skills. This is a connector role, so organisational sensitivity, the ability to bring different interests together, and comfort operating across disciplines and hierarchical levels matter as much as subject expertise. They want someone proactive, results-oriented and entrepreneurial, not an administrator waiting for instructions. Affinity with student development is explicitly valued, suggesting they want someone who sees students as participants in the sustainability transition rather than passive recipients. Familiarity with frameworks like the Whole School Approach or the SDGs, and ideally some exposure to the mbo sector or the SustainaBul, would be a strong differentiator.

Your motivation letter carries more weight here than a generic CV, because mboRijnland explicitly asks how you would approach this new role. Don't just list sustainability experience, sketch a short, concrete plan: how you would map existing initiatives across the colleges, where you see quick wins, and how you would connect students and staff to the movement. Show that you understand the difference between writing policy and actually embedding it in day-to-day teaching. Demonstrate organisational sensitivity. mboRijnland is a large vocational education institution with multiple colleges and vested interests; hiring managers will look for someone who can bring those interests together without pushing a top-down agenda. Reference the Whole School Approach and the SDGs, and if you know the SustainaBul MBO, mention how you would help mboRijnland climb or maintain its ranking. Concrete familiarity with the Dutch mbo context signals you have done your homework. Finally, tailor your CV to show project-based change work and stakeholder activation, not just subject-matter knowledge. Because the role is new, they are betting on your ability to self-direct; evidence of having built something from scratch will stand out far more than a long list of certifications.

The role sits at the intersection of education and sustainability strategy, so its focus is less on corporate carbon accounting and more on embedding sustainability and circularity into curricula, processes and institutional culture. mboRijnland frames this through the Whole School Approach and the SDGs, meaning you will likely work across environmental themes (circularity, resource use), social themes (student development, participation) and governance themes (policy, vision, sector alignment). The distinctive angle is the SustainaBul MBO, a sector benchmark for sustainability in vocational education. Your involvement in preparing the submission, acting as a ranker and joining the learning network suggests a strong emphasis on transparency, peer comparison and continuous improvement against sector standards. That is a governance-and-engagement flavour of sustainability rather than a purely technical one. Because mboRijnland is an education institution, the sustainability impact you influence is largely indirect and long-term: shaping what thousands of students learn and how they think about circularity and sustainable practice as future professionals. The role therefore leans heavily on education-for-sustainable-development and stakeholder mobilisation rather than on operational decarbonisation.

The central challenge is that this is a brand-new role with no fixed playbook. You are expected to conduct your own reconnaissance, define what mboRijnland actually needs, and then build the plan, which means ambiguity and self-direction from day one. For some, that freedom is energising; for others, the lack of a clear mandate or established KPIs could feel disorienting. Embedding sustainability into education is also slow, cultural work. Vocational programmes have their own rhythms, accreditation demands and sector-specific priorities, and teachers may view sustainability as an add-on rather than a core concern. Winning hearts and minds across multiple colleges, each with distinct interests, will require patience and political nous. The job description's emphasis on organisational sensitivity signals that internal resistance and competing priorities are a real dynamic. Resource and measurement questions also loom. The role is about connection and activation rather than direct authority, so influence will depend on persuasion and relationship-building. Demonstrating tangible progress, and defending it to leadership, while initiatives remain dispersed could be a persistent tension.

A typical day likely mixes analysis, conversation and coordination rather than following a fixed routine. You might spend a morning reviewing where sustainability currently appears in different programmes (talking to teachers or programme leads, reviewing curricula, or mapping existing initiatives) and an afternoon turning those findings into concrete proposals or action steps for your plan. Much of the work is relational, so meetings and informal conversations dominate: aligning with the existing Duurzaamheidscoördinator and Concernbeleid & Strategie colleagues, supporting a college team refining its sustainability vision, or brainstorming with students about how to involve them more actively. You may also facilitate a professionalisation session or workshop for staff on circularity. Because the role is new and largely self-directed, there is considerable variability. Some days are strategic and reflective, focused on policy or the SustainaBul preparation; others are hands-on, connecting people and pushing initiatives forward. External contact with the SustainaBul network or other partners could punctuate the week, and you will frequently move between college locations given mboRijnland's multi-site structure.

Because this is a newly created role, the biggest growth lever is ownership: you will be shaping a function that did not exist, which builds a portfolio of change-management and strategic work that is highly transferable. Success here could open paths toward broader policy or strategy roles within mboRijnland, or toward a more senior sustainability position across the Dutch mbo sector. The SustainaBul MBO involvement is a notable platform. Acting as a ranker in the peer-review and joining the national learning network puts you in contact with sustainability coordinators from other institutions, giving visibility and a professional community beyond your own organisation. That network could be a launchpad for speaking, advisory or coordination roles at sector level. The mboRijnland Academie offers structured development, and the collaborative nature of the role means you will grow skills in facilitation, curriculum development and organisational change, competencies that travel well into consultancy, education leadership or corporate sustainability roles. The main ceiling is structural rather than personal: growth depends on how much the institution decides to scale sustainability after this pilot phase.

Internally, your closest working relationship will be with the existing Duurzaamheidscoördinator and the team around Concernbeleid & Strategie, since you operate within the established sustainability policy. Beyond that, you will interact extensively with the colleges, their managers and teaching teams, whom you support in developing a sustainability vision and translating it into daily educational practice. Students are explicitly named as a stakeholder group you must actively involve. You will also engage staff and employees more broadly through professionalisation activities, plus whoever currently runs the many scattered sustainability and circularity initiatives across mboRijnland, since part of your job is making those visible and connecting them. Leadership within the institution matters too, as you help align college-level visions with the mboRijnland-wide strategy. Externally, the SustainaBul MBO network is a key stakeholder: you prepare the institution's participation, act as a ranker in the peer-review, and take part in the learning network. You are also expected to build a wider internal and external network for inspiration, knowledge-sharing and collaboration, which could include peer institutions, partners and sustainability organisations.