How can the UK build the green workforce it needs for 2030?

The UK, like many other advanced economies, is currently undergoing vast economic and technological changes that have huge implications for the nation's present and future workforce.

Megatrends such as artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, ageing populations, geopolitical instability, climate change, and the global clean energy transition have pushed labour markets into a state of flux, as employers shift their skills requirements to better align with the emergence of new technologies and regulations. The result is a confusing landscape where unemployment is relatively high, youth employment is experiencing a full blown crisis, and yet many growing sectors, especially within the green economy, are experiencing serious skills shortages.  

One recent analysis estimated the UK's net zero industries are already worth more than £105bn to the wider domestic economy while supporting around 1.1 million jobs, yet green industries will need to expand much further if climate goals are to be delivered and for many businesses growth plans are being constrained by difficulties recruiting. The sheer speed of the clean tech revolution and the urgency of the net zero transition have left policymakers and educators with huge challenges, as they seek to fill yawning skills gaps, support workers in carbon intensive sectors at risk of becoming surplus to requirements, and provide new career opportunities for young people.

Mounting evidence continues to lay bare the challenge at hand. The latest LinkedIn data indicates demand for 'green talent' continues to outpace supply in the UK, with almost twice as many sustainability-focused hires on the site than the number of people listing such skills on their profile last year. To highlight just one example, the number of electricians in England barely increased last year, despite growing demand for their skills and expertise to help deliver on the country's net zero, clean energy, housing, and data centre ambitions.

Meanwhile, there are estimated to be almost one million people aged between 16 and 24 who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), accounting for roughly one in eight young people. Clearly, there remains a disconnect between green career opportunities and those school leavers looking for work. A recent poll of UK teenagers carried out by energy giant E.ON found very strong appetite for jobs in the green economy, but many said there still remains a dearth of information about potential career paths, qualifications, apprenticeships, and other options that could help them secure roles.

Given these major economic trends and challenges, how can the UK build the green workforce it needs for 2030 and beyond?

It is a question BusinessGreen set out address in its latest webinar, dubbed Spotlight on Skills: How to Develop an Effective Green Skills Strategy, which was hosted in association with Equans UK & Ireland last week and brought together leading experts to explore how businesses can overcome green skills shortages and build a workforce ready to prosper during the net zero transition.

Matt Bloice, head of resourcing at Equans UK & Ireland, argued it is a challenge that extends far beyond conventionally green businesses, given so-called 'green' skills are no longer a "niche" requirement. "You know, everything has an element of green skills, whether talking about project management or that kind of push into sustainability," he said. As such, Bloice argued the issue warrants being framed as something much larger than a 'green skills' challenge. "This is about a workforce transformation," he said. "That's how I see it."

As a multinational company focused on the built environment and facilities management, the main skills needs for Equans are focused on areas such as energy efficiency, retrofitting buildings and infrastructure, electrical work, electric vehicles, and clean energy, Bloice explained - areas where there are well documented skills challenges. "We're not seeing enough availability of people that have those skills," he said. "There's lots of people who have the potential, through transferrable skills and capabilities, but at the moment people are reluctant to invest in a big way because of policy uncertainty. There's lots of delays that we're seeing, and there's that rub between the desire to grow, and actually can we grow?"

As ever, policy and political instability have real world impacts on businesses ability to make long term investments in areas such as skills that can take years to pay back. But without such investments skills shortages are likely to persist.  

Competition for talent

Bloice's concerns echo those of many business leaders that are keen to support the UK's legally-binding climate goals and tap into the opportunities the growing green economy offers, but are being hampered by skills shortages that will take time address. He warned that rather than investing in developing their own skills base for the long term, many companies are instead focused on tapping into a relatively small existing talent pool. "Companies are actually looking to competitors to buy their talent - they're not building their own capability," said Bloice. "So actually the pool of available resources is not increasing. Everyone is going around in this spiral of hiring people from other people."

As a result, companies are being forced to hike wages in order to attract people from a talent pool that may well get smaller still as ageing workers retire, which is pushing up the cost of hiring and driving up the overall cost of the net zero transition. Bloice argued that to break this vicious circle there is an urgent need for policymakers to provide the long term certainty and support that can give companies confidence demand for their services will continue for year to come, which then enables them to invest in skills development. "Policies are constantly changing, and you're seeing delays in infrastructure projects," he said. "It's difficult."

His comments were echoed by Martin Baxter, deputy CEO at the Institute for Sustainability and Environmental Professionals (ISEP), who agreed addressing the green skills challenge is "absolutely vital" for the UK economy.

"If we don't have electricians to do the wiring that needs to be done for the reconfiguration of our national grid - and down to our local grid - and also for EVs and their chargers, then we can't make the electricity transition, and if we don't do that we can't hit our carbon targets," he said. "If we don't have green chemists that can deal with some of the clever stuff on bio-based materials, then we're not going to have SAF [Sustainable Aviation Fuels] nor HVO [Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil]  for some of the transition fuels that are being used. So without people with the skills and capability to do work differently, then it's just not going to get done."

ISEP has a unique vantage point over the UK's green skills challenge, as its members work across multiple sectors of the economy. "Their work is really orchestrating the change that an organisation needs to go through to both manage risk and resilience and protect value within an organisation, but also look at how to create more value as well, such as through supply chains and procurement," Baxter said.

One area where value can be create and the green skills challenge can be addressed is in making it clearer to young people or mid-career changers that undertaking training provides a clear pathway into a new career that also offers progression and opportunities. "It's not just that it's hard to recruit people or reskill them, it's also the pathways to how we reskill people, which are really important," he explained. "So, if you take somebody on as an apprentice electrician, they are highly likely to stay on as an electrician. But if they go to technical college and it's not part of an apprenticeship, there's a much lower chance that they will actually qualify and get into a workplace."

At the same time, however, apprenticeships - particularly those that may last several years - are a big commitment for employers, especially for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) which risk having their top talent poached by larger companies after they have taken the time to train them up.

"We haven't got all of the pathways right in terms of careers to get people into the work that we need to do, and solving that is a real challenge," said Baxter. "So I think there are some systemic issues in the way in which we build up technical skills and competencies, and the role that employers need to play to it enable that to happen more effectively."

There is pent up interest in the green economy among young people, but Bloice acknowledged businesses need to do more to engage them, especially when so many parts of the green economy have an ageing workforce. "I think businesses need to do a better job of actually selling and marketing what these roles mean," he said. "What is a 'green' skill? How do we make it interesting and exciting? It's about bringing these roles to life to actually say 'this is how you can have a meaningful career, this is why it is important, and this is the impact that it has on society'."

How to get to grips with the skills challenge

So what practically can businesses do to fill green skills gaps?

Also speaking during the webinar was Katie Neck, founder and managing director of Sustained Futures, a company that helps organisations upskill their workforces in areas such as climate change, AI, and what it calls 'mindset' - the ability to be adaptable and resilient in the face of environmental challenges.

For Neck, the nature of work is changing rapidly, in large part due to the advent of AI and the escalating climate crisis. "Treating those two things as separate conversations, in my opinion, is quite irresponsible because climate risk and AI adoption are going to be changing the workplace even more [going forward]," she said. "So really focusing on those two things as a L&D [learning and development] or recruitment strategy is going to be super important."

As ever, the first step for a company is understanding where its needs and priorities lie. To that end, Sustained Futures works with clients to audit and map out what skills a company needs and is likely to need in the future based on AI and climate-related trends.

"For organisations, especially SBTi-approved companies, we are able to reverse engineer their targets and show them exactly where the skills gaps are across their business," Neck explained. "We've now got about 15,000 data points that we work with in our skills matrix, for which we took massive inspiration from ISEP's skills map as well, so there's lots of information out there - just not necessarily all in one place."

Baxter agreed that firms first and foremost need to fully understand the policy landscape, risks, and opportunities they face in order to build a clear picture of their skills needs both now and in the future. From there, companies then need to be able to articulate to both board members and staff - as well as customers and stakeholders - why they will require new and different skills to deliver on their long term goals. 

"There's a big storytelling narrative that is needed behind this to move this forward," he said, adding such a vision is also crucial to retaining and recruiting staff, as "people want to work for organisations that are doing the right thing". "There's lots of evidence that young people will be interviewing employers as much as the employer is interviewing them," he said. "That's a different dynamic, and you've got to be authentic and credible in your strategy and the opportunities they will have in their role."

Neck similarly argued there is a need for a more people-centric approach when looking to recruit new talent, which Sustained Futures looks to apply when reaching out to young people at job centres and in educational settings. "Instead of asking them what they want to be when they grow up, we're asking them what problem in the world would you like to solve, and that is getting a really different reception to what we've been doing in the past," she explained. "We are really tapping into what matters to those people, and most often than not, it's around people and planet."

For more established talent, Neck also urged employers to include green and AI skills on job descriptions when hiring in order to ensure "you are attracting the right talent into your organisation". Firms should also consider offering remuneration or incentives against very specific green roles and skills in order to boost retention of top talent, she added.

Efforts to encourage a greater diversity of applicants - across ages, races, religions, disabilities and more - are also key to opening up the talent pool, expanding perspectives and expertise within an organisation, and ensuring staff reach their full potential. Here, outreach and mentoring programmes can play an important role, according to Baxter from ISEP.

"We've had a mentoring programme, the second cohort for which has just finished, and people have described it as life changing," he said. "Participants said they were able to accelerate their careers in a way that they could never have imagined, just by having access to people who can share their own lived experience and help them to make that progress. Its been really encouraging for us, and we're now looking at how we can scale that up."

AI opportunities

The big issue that currently looms over all CVs, job descriptions, and corporate recruitment strategies, is the impact - both positive and negative - of artificial intelligence (AI). With the world in the foothills of what is still a new technology, AI capabilities and uses are constantly evolving and it remains hugely difficult to predict precisely how it will reshape recruitment processes and jobs markets. But there is little doubt significant disruption is on the way, with employers already reporting they are being inundated with AI-enabled job applications, while those seeking work complain of being rejected by machines. More broadly, it is unclear how AI will impact overall recruitment levels and whether it can help tackle green skills shortages. 

Neck argued some of the hype around AI is "overstated", with some of the big tech firms seeking to inflate their capabilities in order to attract investment. But she urged those working in sustainability not to be overly sceptical of what remains a potentially transformative technology, despite its well documented impacts on demand for energy and water for data centres.

Moreover, while she does not believe those working in sustainability will have their jobs replaced by AI any time soon, she warned "people's jobs will be replaced by people that have AI skills".

"I think this is an incredible opportunity," she said. "Please embrace it - there's so many free resources available, with amazing course and upskilling sessions available too. We're seeing a lot of demand for green skills and AI skills across organisations, but also across communities as well."

Baxter from ISEP agreed that "the AI genie is not going back in the bottle, so we're going to work with it". But he also warned companies against taking a Panglossian approach to AI, arguing they must remain clear-eyed about where the technology can help them and where it could prove counter-productive. After all, AI does have its drawbacks, such as concerns over the accuracy of some of its work, the squeeze it has placed on graduate job opportunities, and the potential undermining of critical thinking skills over the long-term.

"If you're not developing critical thinking skills, then actually given some of problems that we face and being able to join things together - and we are a people-centric world - there is a risk that you lose your resilience as an organisation," said Baxter. "I think that's another challenge."

Leadership skills

The discussion also stressed that the need for green skills extends beyond the technical skills required to install a heat pump, manage a green building or complete a sustainability - the importance of understanding clean technologies and climate-related risks should be equally apparent at the top of any organisation.

"There's a lot going on in the world - a lot of disruption," said Neck. "The traditional leadership books are probably not fit for purpose in the future of work." She argued that there was a need for greater trust and empathy in many boardrooms, which can help attract and retain the best talent. Moreover, leaders that come across as authentic are more likely to appear trustworthy than those who hide behind AI for their communication, she said.

Meanwhile, Bloice at Equans highlighted how agility and change management skills are critical at a time when the economy and the trends that are shaping it are changing so fast. "There's a lot of change that will happen, and the ability for leaders to take their teams and businesses through that change effectively will be key to keep to staff retention - whereas poorly managed change is really bad," he said.

Similarly, Baxter underscored the need for resilience in the face of both political and climate turmoil. "There's no hiding place," he said. "The political narrative can change however it likes. The hard reality is that companies are physically seeing climate change before their eyes and having to respond to that."

Building a resilient, future-facing skills strategy in an uncertain world that is in huge flux as a result of escalating climate impacts and an AI-driven technology revolution is certainly no mean feat. But businesses which fail to plug the skills gap and futureproof their workforce will be the first to lose out as these megatrends gather pace on the road towards net zero emissions. In contrast, those that plan carefully for the skills they will need to thrive in the future are more likely to succeed in both bolstering their resilience and seizing the opportunities on offer from an expandinf green economy.

BusinessGreen's webinar - Spotlight on Skills: How to Develop an Effective Green Skills Strategy - was hosted in association with Equans UK & Ireland, and can be watched back in full here.