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Person working on wall insulation
Image credit: Erik Mclean, Unsplash

All industries are increasingly identifying the new green skills and jobs they need to transition towards a low carbon economy. Green skills and jobs will continue to grow and becoming more wide-ranging as industries work towards a sustainable net-zero future.

Developing a green skilled workforce is essential to how we transition towards a greener economy and meet our net zero emissions targets in the West of England . This shift presents new opportunities to our residents and businesses, requiring existing industries to transition to low carbon ways of working.

Across sectors, the green transition requires the evolution of both new and existing jobs that reduce greenhouse emissions produced by our businesses and buildings, create clean energy and transport, protect nature, and strengthen our region’s climate resilience.

More than 50,000 new jobs required to meet net zero

Research commissioned by the West England Mayoral Combined Authority and undertaken by Ecuity highlighted the increasing urgency and significance of green skills in the region. Analysis revealed that more than 50,000 new jobs would be required for the region to meet net zero by 2030. Sectors with significant growth included the Manufacturing, Construction & Installation and Operation & Maintenance sectors. The retrofit sector alone will need to create around 14,000 new green jobs to reduce carbon emissions from heating our region’s homes, including heat pumps, solid wall insulation, cavity wall/loft insulation, and heat networks.

Working on plumbing Image credit: Anna Barclay

What are green skills?

Green skills can be defined as “the knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes needed to live in, develop and support a society which reduces the impact of human activity on the environment”.

Green skills are often associated with sectors that will play a major role in reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, such as power, home heating, waste and resources.

In the West of England, we define a green job as one that will help to create the job functions, responsibilities, conditions, working practices and/or business processes which contribute towards reducing emissions, lowering the carbon footprint and protecting the environment.

The evidence which drives our work

Person crouching by tanks Image credit: Kar Maryshuk, Unsplash Green Market Skills Analysis
Carrying a solar panel Retrofit Market Study
Field macro focus on plants Image credit: Michanne Lisa Climate and Ecological Strategy and Action Plan
Person chopping wood Image credit: Laura Ohlman, Unsplash Employment and Skills Plan

What we do

Our Employment and Skills Plan puts a spotlight on green skills as a key focus across a variety of our skills funding and projects. Through our skills programmes, we want to create a fair and inclusive transition; by addressing skills gaps and supporting inclusive learning opportunities.

The Green Futures Fund provides funding for innovative green careers and curriculum-related project designs for schools and colleges, with a significant portion of activities tailored for young people with additional barriers, including Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and/or socio-economic disadvantage. The aim is to increase young people’s awareness and motivation to enter green career pathways and opportunities.

We are increasing awareness and access to green skills opportunities by embedding retrofit and green skills careers information, advice and guidance (CIAG) into our coaching and employment support services.

  • Skills Connect is an all-age service helping people to find skills, training and careers support. We are developing retrofit CIAG and the green CIAG information on the website, to help residents, businesses and advisors to understand and access local opportunities in the green sector.
  • Future Bright is a coaching programme supporting residents who are in-work and looking for progress or to reach new goals. We are developing resources and training for Future Bright coaches to support conversations with residents around the opportunities in the green sector.

Our Adult Skills Fund works with key training providers across the region to deliver training and support to residents, with a particular focus on supporting those who are in low-paid roles, unemployed or economically inactive. We are working with these providers to develop ways to focus green skills training so more residents gain the skills required to meet our net zero targets.

Our Skills Bootcamps work with employers to offer free training opportunities to build up sector-specific skills, where learners either fast track to an interview with a local employer or progress their roles with their existing employer. Our bootcamps have continued to focus on developing green skills.

The Growth Hub offer Green Business Support, which provides a useful step-by-step guide to increasing the sustainability of your business. The project also identifies ways to access funds and green workforce development opportunities that can support your business to start to transition towards becoming low carbon.

To address retrofit skills shortages in the region, the Combined Authority has funded the development of Retrofit West, to drive up market demand through a homeowner advice service. Retrofit West also engages micro businesses in the construction industry to learn about how they can benefit from branching out into the retrofit sector, upskill their workforce, widen their network and prepare their business to meet this new and growing demand.

Carbon literacy badge

Carbon Literacy

To further our impact, we have introduced Carbon Literacy training for all our staff. The Combined Authority aims to become a Gold Level Carbon Literature Organisation by 2025, which means having more than 50% of staff trained and certified ‘Carbon Literate’. This organisational accreditation will ensure that we ‘lead by example’ in creating a Carbon Literature workforce which delivers sustainable behaviours

The next steps

As the climate continues to change and the urgency to reach net zero becomes ever more pressing, the demand for green skills will continue to grow. We will continue to drive the green agenda, promoting the take up and development of green skills through our skills activity, including:

  • Drive forward investment in green skills through our skills programmes and activities.
  • Promote green skills pathways on the Skills Connect website, and through our work with Skills Connect advisors and Future Bright coaches.
  • Join up employment and skills programmes that support people to progress green interest and careers at whatever stage they are at on their journey.
  • Work with key local organisations and businesses through the Employment and Skills Advisory Panel (ESAP) and Local Skill Improvement Plan to understand what the skill requirements are and how to meet them.
  • Address emerging skill gaps through our Mayoral Priority Skills Fund where existing provision is not yet able to.
  • Help businesses to upskill their workforces and support residents into work through programmes like Skills Bootcamps, Future Bright and the Growth Hub’s Green Business Support.
  • Work with education providers to embed green skills within their curriculums and provide more green skills courses.
  • Lobby government for more funding to address skills provision gaps.
  • Work across the Combined Authority (e.g. with the Growth Hub, Good Employment Charter and Invest Bristol Bath) to ensure skills programmes meet the needs of businesses and their employees.
Person listening to podcast Image credit: Dushawn Kovic, Unsplash

Discover the importance of green skills in our region

To learn more about the importance of green skills in our region and the variety of work we are undertaking in the West of England, listen to the City and Guilds podcast with Jane Vivian, Programme Manager for Employment and Skills, at the Combined Authority.

Listen now on City and Guilds