A quick post before a longer toast
This week is Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee. Congratulations, Ma'am and thank you for subscribing to The Green Edge (just joking). Here's a quick post before we all disappear for the long weekend.
The Green Edge is not making its regular post this Thursday, because everyone will be far too busy street partying to read a missive from an up-and-coming green newsletter. Our congratulations to Her Majesty The Queen for 70 years of impeccable service to the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. Enjoy your party, Ma’am - cake is encouraged these days, we hear.
That’s not to say we’ll be bunking off completely, though. There’s still much to explore and write about in the ongoing march to net zero. As usual, we’ve been turning over stones in the green stream and have our next wave of articles locked and loaded. Among other things, we’ve been investigating the skill implications for companies moving into Additive Manufacturing (AM) - the grown-up name for 3D printing - and we’ll be reporting on a recent conversation with Moog, one of its leading proponents. Also, look out for a guest article from one of the UK’s B Corp companies, which talks about how B Corps operate in a space where they can help other like-minded businesses drive change and achieve their net zero goals.
Something else for us to get our teeth into is the hot-off-the-press news that DfE’s Skills and Productivity Board - which, we have to say (indeed, we did say) we thought wasn’t going to produce anything - has finally published its research and recommendations. Salmon-like, the Board deposited a cluster of reports in our stream, right at the time it shuffled off its mortal coil and (we find) bequeathed its legacy to a brand new group, the Unit for Future Skills. We have to admit the appearance of the new Unit took us a little by surprise, until we realised that it’s actually been promised all along - or at least since February - in p.417 of the Levelling-Up Green Paper. Come on, Green Edge, keep up!
Anyway, one recommendation from the Board that we anticipated in our first post of this year concerned the blended use of the US O*NET taxonomy for future skills definition. Research commissioned by the Board and carried out by Frontier Economics recommended to ‘…aggregate individual skills in Nesta and ESCO [European Skills/Competences, qualifications and Occupations] in a way that is consistent with the broader categories contained in O*NET’.
We agree, but here’s something else. This may be ok for general skills, but when we last looked (which wasn’t too long ago), the O*NET content model isn’t too hot on including green skills. Nor is ESCO in its skills pillar. Our experience has been that both O*NET and ESCO are updated too slowly relative to the speed of the developing green economy. But Nesta can be more nimble, and while we don’t currently see a lot of green skills content in its data-driven skills taxonomy for the UK, we think it could be put to good use to that particular end.
Something for the new Unit for Future Skills to think about, perhaps. Enjoy your weekend!
…afore ye go for the weekend, just one more thing. The Green Edge is looking for sponsors. We’re not asking for much; just enough to ensure we keep our newsletter free for subscribers and build on our plans for more research, analysis and guest content. Click the button below and drop us an email for more information.
Thank you.