Helping teachers will lead to better outcomes for the green workforce. This blog by Anna Tvrz, Associate Director for Content at We Are Futures, highlights the Green Skills Unlocked course, created in partnership with industry and STEM education experts.
The current shift in skills towards meeting the demands of a green economy has been dubbed a ‘green industrial revolution’ by the UK government. We need to make sure young people aren’t left behind.
The UK needs two million green jobs by 2030 if it’s going to stay on track to meet its Net Zero target. That’s a big ask – and it’s not all. The government’s Green Jobs Taskforce estimates that one in five jobs will be affected by the transition to a low-carbon economy.
To fill those jobs, people will need ‘green skills’: the kind of skills that support a sustainable and resource-efficient society. From monitoring a project’s sustainability, to retrofitting buildings, or providing electricity, water, and waste services, this represents a significant shift in the types of skills that will be valued across the workforce.
Thankfully, our future workforce is more than willing. According to the Green Alliance, 94% of people aged 15 to 24 are looking for green jobs and careers, while the Learning & Work Institute recently found that 79% of young people want to work for an organisation tackling climate change.
But willingness is only half the picture. In the same Green Alliance / Learning & Work Institute report, just 22% of people of people aged 16-23 say they were informed about the range of green jobs available – and as many as 87% don’t know what ‘green skills’ are. However, around 75% of students interviewed agreed that they would like to learn more about climate, sustainability and environmental topics at school.
Clearly, there is a gap between the skills young people are learning in schools, and the skills they’ll need in the future job market.
Green skills start in school
We need to bridge that gap, working together to achieve a more sustainable future for students as well as the planet – and teachers are the key to success.
Science teachers in particular are already teaching the key STEM skills that form green skills, while teachers of other subjects instill essential skills like collaboration, communication, resilience, creativity, and digital literacy.
Some teachers are Careers Leads too, there to support students with preparing for the future jobs market. But connecting the curriculum with future job requirements isn’t easy: teachers are extremely busy, and don’t necessarily have the time, resources, and connections to keep up-to-speed with a fast-moving market.
They need to ensure that any new resources correspond to important curriculum requirements, and that they meet the needs of a diverse range of students. Additionally, part of a teacher’s role is to give students the opportunity to ‘be what they see’. By showing students the types of green jobs they could do, and people they can identify with performing them, teachers can open new windows of opportunity and inspire their young people to understand green roles as a possible future reality.
We need to support teachers
It’s not enough for the green industry to sit back and expect young people to learn the skills they need at school. It needs to meet them in the classroom.
Whether through outreach, further training or classroom resources, helping teachers get up-to-speed with future technology and the latest innovations generating money and jobs will lead to better outcomes for the green workforce.
That’s why we came up with Green Skills Unlocked, an industry-backed online course for teachers. It’s broken up into easy-to-digest modules, so teachers can follow it at their own pace, and in their own time. They can then add careers insight into the lessons they’re already teaching in the form of ready-to-use classroom resources. Through simple tweaks to their teaching practice, they can embed green skills ideas into lessons they’re already planning to teach.
Designed by education experts and accredited by the Association for Science Education (ASE), Green Skills Unlocked follows the ‘science capital teaching approach’ to highlight the impact green skills have in the real world, and their relevance to young people’s lives.
IEMA Deputy CEO Martin Baxter has been involved in the creation of Green Skills Unlocked. Explaining why the course’s importance, he highlights that the need to bring green skills into the workplace imminently is something that will require new ways of operating for the future workforce, and all employers:
“The global carbon budget is running out. That will require people to do things differently. It will affect all sectors of the economy in all parts of the world. Making sure that we’re all part of the solution as well as overcoming the problems, is a real opportunity to create the future that we want…. We don’t just need people to know what needs to be done, we need to give people the skills and capability to know how to do that.”
Bridging the gap between green jobs and the school curriculum
Teachers have told us the course has been invaluable. For instance, a science teacher in Redcar told us the course had helped her identify the green skills and careers available in her local area. She said:
“Before the course I hadn’t thought of there being much on offer, but after, and knowing what I was looking for, [it’s] certainly opened my eyes.”
Only by supporting teachers in this way can we equip young people with the skills they need to contribute to the energy transition. The result will be a workforce ready for a sustainable future – and their own futures, thanks to valuable and transferable skills that enhance their employability.
A green, future-facing workforce will place the UK in a stronger position to meet its Net Zero targets. And it all starts with teachers.
This is a guest blog post for Green Careers Hub written by Anna Tvrz, Associate Director for Content at We Are Futures, a brand and social impact agency who created the Green Skills Unlocked course in partnership with industry and STEM education experts. To find out more about teaching green skills to young people, visit Green Skills Unlocked.
