The Great Re-shuffle: How the growing demand for green skills is changing the workforce

With green skill demand doubling in recent years, now is the time to upskill your green skills to keep up with the changing economy!

Research suggests more jobs will be requiring green skills, with 70% of people agreeing all types of jobs will require green skills by 2050.

With these significant changes, how can you keep up as a candidate seeking employability or a business in the current transitioning green economy?

But firstly, let’s take a look at what exactly green skills actually refer to…

Green skills are known as the actions, knowledge, and values individuals possess, in consideration and protection of the environment.

Whilst green skills may be associated with skills directly linked to green processes such as water & energy management, green skills are now more broadly linked to cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal competencies according to research.

This means individuals showing environmental awareness, innovation for new environmental strategies and adaptation to green strategies are all now referred to as green skills.

Whilst much of the green skill growth is concentrated within environmental careers, there is growth of green skills within non-traditionally green roles, as the green industry is merging across industries.

Therefore, role requirements are changing, and this could affect you!

Recent research identified four green skill trends we are currently seeing:

• The need for green skilling in non-traditional specialist roles.
• The transition of green skills in traditionally specialist sustainable roles.
• Increasing demand for green skills in newly established roles.
• The development of green skills.

Interestingly, research has found industries including finance, operations & distributions, procurement & supply chain, HR, and resilience management have the largest gap of green skills within their roles.

Therefore, ensuring you’re prepared as a green skilled candidate could give you a competitive advantage within your employability journey, regardless of your industry!

With the UK aiming to be net zero by 2050 across all sectors, it is likely that the need for green skills is significantly influenced by these changes.

Alongside external influences, research suggests that individuals are driven by personal motivations as they value sustainable practices.

• There is correlation between employees who possess green skills and employees who are promoted to executives, according to research. Therefore, as a green skilled employee, you could stand a better chance of being promoted.
• Employment opportunities – Early adoption of green skills could also be beneficial to employment opportunities, as individuals are better adapted and skilled effectively to the newly changing requirements of roles.
• You can make well informed environmental decisions as an individual – This could be beneficial for your personal fulfilment and personal brand.
• Benefits to the economy – Possessing green skills is beneficial to the economy, as you have the skills needed for the transition into an advancing green economy.

Research predicts that green skills will become as valuable as technological skills in the current workforce!

With this in mind, we’ve put together some ideas for developing your own green skills:

• Make the most of online learning opportunities! For example, the Government have recently released green apprenticeships and bootcamps to upskill employees with green skills, so look and see what’s out there!
• Keep up to date with sustainability news and reports – This will allow you to create a current and effective awareness of sustainability, to understand how to approach it!
• Reflect upon your own skills – Think about how you can contribute to sustainable strategies both personally and professionally. Have you developed any green strategies at home that you could take into the workplace?
• Develop your green brand – This could be achieved through reposting and creating content surrounding sustainability, to show your commitment and knowledge to prospect employers.

Whilst it’s important to develop green skills independently, it is also important to encourage them in your business, to keep up!

• Create a consistent strategy – This could be achieved through training programs, offering employees a cohesive understanding of sustainability across the business.
• Establish a system – To allow sustainable programs and practices to be integrated effectively across the business – at T2M we have done this by implementing our Jobs for the Planet scheme, where we plant trees for every candidate we place with a client!
• Communicate your strategy effectively – It’s really important your team understand your mission and how they can be a part of it, so they can get inspired to make a difference and enhance their own green skills!
• Encourage sustainable innovation across the business – This could be achieved through stimulating conversations with employees for further encouragement and collaboration of green skills within the workforce. This helps to put sustainability at the base of your business.

At T2M we have open conversations, discussing strategies we can integrate into our team and our office to be more environmentally conscious as a workforce. We try to use Electric Vehicles when travelling to client sites, and you’ll sometimes find some members of our team cycling to to work, we have even partnered with The Future Forest Company to plant trees across the UK!

If you’d like to know more about T2M’s sustainable practices, you can head over to our sustainability page.

Or check out our re-skilling blog to learn more about other important skills employers are currently valuing.