1 What skills do learners need?
What skills do people need to address the climate emergency? Deloitte’s report ‘A blueprint for green workforce transformation’ (Deloitte, 2022) tries to answer this question by identifying ‘green skills’ in relation to three areas of work in the UK:
- nature and biodiversity
- climate change and decarbonisation
- waste and pollution reduction.
Deloitte (2022) suggests that education has a key part to play in enabling green skills through:
- careers advice about green skills
- apprenticeships with a green skills focus
- provision of lifelong learning
- educational frameworks and the integration of sustainability in the national curriculum.
In an analysis of the gaps in the UK’s green skills, the Green Alliance (2022) claims to take a broad view of green skills. Their definition includes skills that contribute indirectly to meeting climate goals, as well as those that directly contribute. Despite this, their report focuses on the sectors facing the most pressing skills shortages, including transport, housing and land management. For example, skills in nature restoration, solar panel installation, installation of low-energy lighting in new-build housing, and manufacturing of home insulation are going to be needed with increasing frequency as the years pass. The Heat Pump Association estimates that 12,400 installers will be needed by 2025 and 50,200 by 2030 (Heat Pump Association, 2020, cited in Green Alliance, 2022). Their report suggests that education providers need to begin offering more climate- and environment-oriented courses.
A focus on the technical skills needed for green jobs isn’t unusual. Kwauk (2021) analysed 133 countries’ climate action plans and concluded that many countries do tend to limit their focus to technical skills and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects. While acknowledging the importance of work-based skills, this course takes a much broader view of the skills needed to address the climate emergency.