Green skills

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.

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.

A woman in a hard hat and high-visibility vest smiles while operating a surveying instrument outdoors.

The Classification of Green Courses and Provision in the West of England

The West of England has introduced new guidance for identifying and categorising green courses in the region. Designed for a wide range of audiences, including training providers, the guidance supports efforts to identify, classify, and report on green training opportunities. It establishes a clear categorisation system for green courses, classifying them as in-depth, intermediate, introductory, or non-green. This framework enhances the development of green training programmes and supports the growth of the future green workforce. Additionally, the guidance is being integrated into the forthcoming Adult Skills Fund Commissioning Plan for 2025/26.

View guidance

Carbon Literacy

To further our impact, we have introduced Carbon Literacy training for all our staff. The West of England Mayoral Combined Authority have been accredited as a Silver Carbon Literate, and aims to become a Gold Level Carbon Literate Organisation by the end of 2026 - which means having more than 60% of staff trained and certified. This organisational accreditation will ensure that we ‘lead by example’ in creating a Carbon Literate workforce which delivers sustainable behaviours.

Person leading a skills presentation with text on a big screen

Green Skills and Careers Navigators Network

In November 2025, we launched a new Green Skills and Careers Navigators Network to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among careers and employment professionals in the West of England. The Network seeks to strengthen and accelerate the promotion of green skills and career pathways across a variety of services. Members will co-design and test best-practice around embedding green careers information within their organisation, with the core aim of developing an informative guide that we can share widely across the skills system.

The Network includes more than 20 different organisations including:

National Careers Service, City of Bristol College, Avon Needs Trees, YTKO, Business West, SGS College, Bath City Farm, Youth Environmental Service, Partners in Bristol, NHS, UWE, Western Training Provider Network, Volunteer It Yourself, Ashley Community Housing, Bristol City Leap, Catalyse Change, The Restore Trust, Skills Connect teams from across our Local Authorities.

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.

Empowering Careers and Employment Coaches We’ve equipped the region’s careers and employment coaches with the knowledge they need to identify and promote green opportunities. So far, we have trained coaches across 65 organisations.
“I attended the Retrofit training event. At the time, I had no experience with retrofit careers but understood that it was a growing sector. The Retrofit training event increased my awareness and understanding of retrofit and green career pathways and it made me feel more confident about promoting retrofit and green skills to clients.” Ryan - Skills Connect Coach
Locally relevant green careers information We’ve ensured residents and careers coaches now have clear, practical information about the jobs and skills driving our transition to Net Zero. Skills Connect is an all-age service helping people to find skills, training and careers support. We have ten dedicated green skills webpages providing guidance and inspiration for anyone considering a green career.

We’ve launched the Green Skills and Careers Navigators Network made up of 20+ regional organisations from different education and VCSE settings, to innovate around embedding green careers information into services and develop a best practice resource for the future.

We’ve made it easier for residents to explore the training routes into green careers through new visual pathway maps in the Retrofit, Nature, and Clean Energy (coming soon) sectors. We’ve simplified access to training by identifying and adding 145 green training providers to our Skills Connect Directory - giving people confidence in finding where to take their next step

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.

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.