What are you doing to help save the planet? Do you know where to find information about green jobs? Do you know what they actually are?
It is only recently that there has been an agreed definition of what a green job: see below. This is used for Nomis the Office of National Statistics to track monitor green jobs.
‘Employment in an activity that contributes to protecting or restoring the environment, including those that mitigate or adapt to climate change.’
Is that what you were expecting? I’m not sure but let’s run with it. Following a summer or longer of weird, wonderful and at times very scary weather and weather related events around the globe. It is time we ALL make sure we know more about what is happening about green jobs and the world of work. You could find out more at the following websites.
https://www.greenjobs.co.uk/, https://www.environmentjob.co.uk/jobs
https://jobhelp.campaign.gov.uk/improve-your-chances-of-getting-a-job/green-jobs/
The Local government sector a large English employer says this about green jobs.
https://www.local.gov.uk/local-green-jobs-accelerating-sustainable-economic-recovery
Green jobs are available across a number of sectors, including:
- Construction
- Energy and Mining
- Fashion Technologies
- Finance
- Healthcare
- Manufacturing
- Renewables and the environment
- Transportation
Some of these seem obvious some less so. We’ve all heard of Electric vehicles, wind and solar power and recycling. But what are the green jobs showing up in Finance and Healthcare? Not sure I can tell you yet I need to do more research.
I can tell you that in 2020, there were 526,000 green job full-time equivalents (FTE) in the UK compared with 507,000 FTE in 2015.Nomis also released the following in September this year.
Around a quarter (27%) of working adults in Great Britain reported in May 2023 that they would describe any part of their job as a “green job”, while around 1 in 20 (4%) reported that all or most of their job relates to “green” activities.
You may also be interested to learn, if you didn’t know already, that there are Coronation emblem signalled gold-standard apprenticeships that help develop green skills. Six current apprenticeships marked with the Coronation emblem are:
- Countryside worker (level 2) – carrying out specific environmental and conservation tasks.
- Forest craftsperson (level 3) – carrying out the practical operations required to create, maintain and harvest forests and woodlands.
- Low carbon heating technician (level 3) – carrying out installation of environmentally friendly heating.
- Installation and maintenance electrician (level 3) – installing, maintaining and repairing electrical systems in industrial, commercial and domestic environments.
- Sustainability Business Specialist (level 7) – helping organisations to manage the resources they use and the waste they generate according to environmentally friendly principles.
- Corporate responsibility and sustainability practitioner (level 4) – being a social conscience for the organisation, helping innovate and drive ambitions for social and environmental change.