Opinion-in-brief: We must grow green jobs to address the climate crisis
The pandemic and the end of furlough have left 12.9 per cent of 16 to 24 year-olds unemployed. In the lead up to Cop26 the Prime Minister has hailed a green industrial revolution as a potential solution.
The transition to net zero is already affecting career plans for many, removing large numbers of jobs, whilst creating many times more in new sectors. A key challenge is to ensure our workforce has the right skills to fill them.
We don’t have now a sufficiently ‘green-skilled’ workforce, and employers struggle to find the right talent: around 70 per cent of employers surveyed by Generation found it hard sourcing people with the right skills at junior levels.
Green skills programmes must become an important port of call in UK jobs centres.
As we look ahead to Cop26, we must invest more in these skills programmes to get people back into work, and to meet the UK’s net zero targets.