Greening the UK’s Skills has been produced by education and skills charity NOCN Group and the British Association of Construction Heads (BACH). The report outlines that the transition to Net Zero will only be possible with a skilled ‘green’ workforce to build, operate and maintain the necessary assets for energy, retrofit and carbon capture as well as related infrastructure in the logistics, utilities and transportation industries.
Whilst the UK has great engineering, science and technology skills to support the drive to Net Zero, it lacks enough people with those skills, particularly the operational workforce, mainly at Level 2, that can build, operate and maintain ‘green’ physical environmental assets.
There is still confusion about what is meant by ‘Green Skills’ and what these mean at a practical level for technical and vocational education in the context of the UK’s skills eco-system.
This paper aims to help to clarify this and sets out the range of adapted and new skills the UK’s economy will urgently need to build and operate over the next 5 to 10 years if we are to be successful in addressing the major challenges created by climate change.