Training for a future in the green economy

Anthea Pratt, Skills Programme Manager at the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (North East LEP) explains how we can design training for jobs of the future.

When we commissioned the Domestic Retrofit Skills Needs Assessment, with the North East and Yorkshire Net Zero Hub, we knew that the urgent drive to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions was going to bring changes to the jobs market.

And when the results of the assessment came in, showing that up to 80,000 skilled workers will be needed in the North East and Yorkshire if the UK is to reach its net zero target by 2030, we knew that this presented a huge opportunity for our region.

A separate study by Energi Coast found that the offshore wind sector alone in the North East can support the creation of between 6,000 and 9,000 jobs by 2025.

It’s clear that the North East will see a big increase in the number of skilled jobs available in the green economy. So how do we make sure people in our region are equipped with the skills needed for these new roles?

Meeting the demand for new, skilled workers

If we’re to meet this demand for new, skilled roles, we need to start with our training provision: one of the first things we do must be to increase the current capacity we have for training people and equipping them with ‘green skills’. Even though many of these new roles will emerge in years to come, we need the teachers, trainers and courses in place now for people to begin to upskill.

That’s why the North East LEP has been working with training providers and businesses to roll out Skills Bootcamps for green skills in our region.

These bootcamps are part of the Government’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee, helping everyone gain skills for life, and we were awarded £2.4 million for bootcamps focusing specifically on the green skills that we know our region needs.

New and flexible ways of learning

We are building a skills offer to enable the North East to achieve a green and sustainable carbon neutral future.

As part of this we’re increasing and diversifying the North East’s skills provision by introducing and testing new types of training courses and new methods of learning.

These widely accessible Skills Bootcamps are for people over the age of 19, including those who are already employed in green sectors and are adding to their current skillset to progress in the workplace; people who are currently self-employed, providing them with the skills and qualifications needed to access increased contracting opportunities; and people who want to get a job in renewable energy, domestic retrofit or electric vehicles for the first time, providing flexible courses to help them secure new roles.

And as well as individual learners, who can access the Skills Bootcamps free of charge, the training is open to businesses which are looking to upskill their existing workforce.

An evolving offer

Our aim is to continue gathering evidence about the skills people will need in the future.  We’re talking to employers about what they need, and we’ll develop our training offer to make sure it fits the needs of the green economy as it grows and develops

Registration for the first wave of Green Skills Bootcamps in the North East is open now. Find out more here.