Building the talent pipeline for a new generation of jobs

GREEN SKILLS & TRAINING

Inform. 4,694

There were 4,694 unfilled ‘green’ jobs in Wales at the beginning of October 2021.

60,000

A ‘green and just’ recovery carries the potential to create more than 60,000 green economy jobs over the next two years, in communities right across Wales.

100,000

Across the UK, there’s an estimated shortage of 100,000 technicians with the necessary expertise to undertake the hydrogen boiler/fuel pump domestic refit alone.

£2-4bn

An appropriately-skilled decarbonisation is worth between £2bn-£4bn to the Welsh economy every year for 29 years.

Building the talent pipeline for a new generation of jobs

Green Industries Wales GREEN SKILLS & TRAINING

Inform.

There were 4,694 unfilled green jobs in Wales at the beginning of October 2021, according to Totaljobs, the UK’s largest hiring online platform, with each of these roles representing a sustainable, well-paid opportunity to work for a quality employer in the public, private or third sector. And if the skillsets for these positions are in high demand today, they are sure to be in greater demand tomorrow. The latest research undertaken by the Future Generations of Wales Commissioner (in collaboration with the New Economics Foundation) shows that a “green and just” recovery, supported by sufficient infrastructure investment, carries the potential to create more than 60,000 green economy jobs over the next two years in communities across Wales.

With Wales plc now on the cusp of being able to create tens of thousands of good quality livelihoods that deliver a major increase in GVA - whilst supporting rapid decarbonisation and improved biodiversity across the country - how well-equipped is the current skills pipeline to deliver the talent capable of performing these new roles? The short answer is “not very” - with that same research revealing deeply insufficient numbers in apprenticeship and training programmes, as well as a mismatch between the skills at work in existing employment and those needed for the newly emerging roles.

“Wales could create more than 60,000 green economy jobs over the next two years”

Wales is far from unique in needing to build a training bridge that solves a green skills disconnect. Indeed, across the UK, there’s an estimated shortage of 100,000 technicians with the necessary expertise to undertake the hydrogen boiler/fuel pump domestic refit alone. The positive news? The Welsh Government, educational establishments, independent training providers and employers themselves are now working in partnership - and in fast-forward - to skill, re-skill and upskill the workforce of Wales for the incredible opportunities ahead. In July 2021, the Welsh Government announced a multi million pound investment in new college courses for jobs in the green economy, as part of the Personal Learning Accounts programme which supports people in lower-income jobs to retrain and move into longer-term skilled jobs with higher earnings. Six colleges (Bridgend, Cardiff & Vale, Gower, Grwp Llandrillo Menai, Pembrokeshire and Sir Gar) have been awarded funding to deliver the courses, which will include subject areas such as electric and hybrid cars, environmentally-friendly heating systems and e-bikes. The courses will be available from level 2 to level 5 (with most courses at level 3) and are available for both part-time and flexible study, designed to fit around other commitments - the perfect foundation for training and retraining anyone over 19 years of age for a green job of the future.

“A multi-million investment in new college courses for green jobs - and the UK’s first dedicated centre of excellence in skills training”

In the private sector, many of the utilities charged with carrying out the green revolution are actively creating the skillsets that will enable them to deliver this new world - including the British Gas Green Skills Centre in Tredegar: the UK’s first dedicated centre of excellence in green skills training, established in the heart of the Welsh valleys. This unique investment in skilling up for the rapidly growing green energy sector offers practical training and qualifications for would-be energy efficiency assessors and installers of new green technologies. It also offers opportunities for existing British Gas engineers to improve their skills, as well as being a community training facility accessed by local businesses, groups and schools - a truly collaborative facility, developed in partnership with the Welsh Government, JobMatch, Jobcentre Plus, Summit Skills and Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council.

With Leigh Hughes, Chair of the Cardiff Capital Region Skills Partnership, believing that the Welsh appetite for innovation and collaboration is at the heart of green job skilling - and David Jukes of SWIC maintaining that an appropriately-skilled decarbonisation is worth between £2bn-£4bn to the Welsh economy every year for 29 years - the message is resoundingly clear: Wales has the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (and requirement) to grow skills and create livelihoods en masse, in industries that provide economic, environmental, social and cultural wellbeing. It’s an opportunity we simply cannot afford to miss.