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PurposeThis paper aims to analyse an initiative to provide learners on "career‐based" programmes with opportunities to reflect upon their values within the context of sustainability.Design/methodology/approachAn international literature review relating values and behaviour to the sustainability agenda led to the development of "sustainability training" workshop activities for construction students at the University of Plymouth. The activities, drawing on good practice from a range of education for sustainability initiatives and the behavioral discipline Neuro Linguistic Programming, enable participants to elicit and reflect upon their core values and to relate these to key sustainability issues. Following multiple pilots the workshops were offered as voluntary field trials to students, their effectiveness being measured through structured feedback.FindingsThe feedback returns demonstrate the popularity of the enquiry‐based learning techniques utilized and the effectiveness of the individual activities in achieving their aims. Constructive criticism centred on the need to simplify some of the activity instructions.Practical implicationsThis research shows that open‐ended enquiry‐based learning techniques are useful for promoting sustainability values within educational programmes. As the activities described here are not discipline‐specific, they have potential to be adapted for similar disciplines at other institutions and for use with other career‐based disciplines.Originality/valueMuch is written about the need to embed sustainability values in the curriculum. This paper describes a method of fulfilling this need and may be of significant value to those attempting to embed sustainability within educational programmes.

'An analysis of the problems faced by pol'al strategists who seek the support of alienated voters' employing data from 3 recent Massachusetts elections. The alienated voters are those who assume 'that politicians are corrupt,... voting is useless, reform impossible, & the so-called democratic process a hollow mockery of what it is supposed to be. They structure the pol'al world in terms of a sharp dichotomy between the powerful insiders - politicians, contractors, bookies, businessmen - & voters, who are powerless outsiders.' Pol'al alienation is seen as arising from 'the disjunction between democratic values & perceived pol'al realities... or from actual experience with corrupt politicians.' A theoretical model of the distribution of an electorate is presented. The following strategies are suggested to appeal to the alienated voter: (1) strategies to appeal to feelings of powerlessness: (a) 'the candidate tries to enhance feelings of powerlessness emphasizing the unchecked tyranny of the incumbents & suggesting that their hegemony is the cause of the citizen's powerlessness' & (b) 'the candidate attempts to identify himself with the alienated voter by stressing his own powerlessness,' (2) strategies to appeal to feelings of meaninglessness: (a) offering the voter information that he did not expect to receive, (b) news broadcasts, (c) revealing `facts of pol'al life' which are usually unmentioned, but are known by the alienated voter, & (d) 'information indicating that the candidate cares about the voter.' The candidate campaigning in an area where many alienated voters reside must consider the following questions: (i) 'is the proportion of alienated voters (who are likely to vote rather than abstain) large enough to warrant strategies designed esp for them?,' (ii) 'what is the party identification of most alienated voters?,' & (iii) 'will strategies designed for the alienated voter repel the nonalienated voter?' I. Taviss.