Defining sustainability
There are a variety of definitions being used within the UK and internationally by organisations such as ONET, International Labour Organisation, and the Green Jobs Taskforce. The latter states:
“A ‘green job’ is used to signify employment in an activity that directly contributes to - or indirectly supports - the achievement of the UK's net zero emissions target and other environmental goals, such as nature restoration and mitigation against climate risks.”
We can get hung up on trying to define and pigeonhole green jobs and green skills which in itself can be a barrier to training. In fact, there’s a compelling argument that in the future all jobs can be considered as green.
One helpful definition is from Australia:
"Skills for sustainability, also known as green skills, are the technical skills, knowledge, values and attitudes needed in the workforce to develop and support sustainable social, economic and environmental outcomes in business, industry and the community."
When thinking about sustainability, “essential skills” such as communication and teamwork are fundamental and just as important as “hard skills”. As stated in a timely report from WorldSkills and the Learning and Work Institute, “a successful transition will require people with broader skills, such as management and people skills”.
Therefore our workforce is going to need at least a base level understanding of sustainability – either specifically contextualised to their job or something they can apply at home.
Training needs analysis
With this in mind, it’s good practice as an employer to undertake a training needs analysis of your workforce to look for skills gaps and opportunities for development. For sustainability, it can be helpful to break down training into the following areas:
- Role specific – where specific training is needed to carry out the role
- Awareness – where there is no role-specific training but having an awareness of sustainability benefits the whole organisation
- Essential skills – the skills which will be transferable across different roles and sectors.
As someone that works in education, I acknowledge that the skills and funding system can be difficult for employers to navigate.
The different elements can seem disparate, and I believe we need a ‘systems thinking’ approach to drive purposeful action – a system that is responsive and agile, including a funding system that allows for the development of high-quality learning solutions which are accessible to learners.
What are we doing at NCFE?
As an awarding organisation with the purpose of promoting and advancing learning, one of our core activities is to develop qualifications, and other learning solutions, that meet the needs of employers and our learners.
We have our Level 2 Understanding Climate Change and Environmental Awareness qualification which has already proven to be very popular. Interestingly, we’re finding that it’s being used in a couple of different ways:
- Employers are contextualising it for their workforce, some are even developing their own resources to support learning.
- One of our providers has used it to generate buy-in for some of the environmental policies they’re implementing.
We’re also looking into ways in which we can contextualise sustainability to different sectors and industries, across all our learning solutions. For example, our sector specialists in Early Years, in collaboration with Dr Diane Boyd of Liverpool John Moores University, have created two sustainability resources, aimed at embedding sustainability and STEM into early years experiences for young children.
The resources aim to support practitioners working directly with young children, students during their training, and parents with young children. This holistic approach to entrenching sustainability into early years education will help to secure long-term impact and support practitioners to make sustainability a central part of their practice.
If we move away from the limiting definition of a ‘green job’ we start to free ourselves up to a wealth of opportunities to grow, learn and develop. What’s important is the ability to contextualise all of this within our personal and professional lives – understanding that all jobs in the future will need a level of green skills.
This article is the first of two. The second is a follow-up article outlining how employers can make the most of sustainability training opportunities.
