Back to our knitting
We know, we know - we often get sidetracked. But green skills are what we're here for. And lots of those 'green' skills are really just about life.
It’s true, we admit it. While The Green Edge’s modus operandi remains front-and-centre to uncover the whats, whys, wheres and hows of skills for sustainability, we do get distracted on occasion and allow our eyes to wander elsewhere into the bits and bytes of all the technologies, policies, movements and other shiny lights that go with the green revolution.
Like the Just Transition, for example. Thus far, we’ve written and talked a fair bit about it this year—and we make no apology for that. Without the principle of ‘leave no one behind’, a full and proper shift to a sustainable planet just isn’t going to happen. So, with that in mind we’ve delved into the challenges and opportunities of implementing just transitions amidst economic uncertainties; we’ve taken a closer look at Scotland's approach to just transition, and we’ve discussed—with some of our friends who are well-versed in such matters—the importance of inclusive policymaking and community engagement.
At other times in the recent past, we’ve also got ourselves wrapped up in things like the challenges facing those who are trying to make the textiles industry (or, at least, their part in it) more sustainable; and how the aviation industry needs to restructure for Net Zero; together with the particular handles the big (and smaller) housing associations might have on the retrofitted built environment. No doubt we shall continue to do so—it’s all so interesting, you see.
But, at a time when DESNZ is finding its noble intentions are being clouded in the public view by concerns on how much it’s all going to cost, and while those who seek the attention of the press are using words like “impossible” and “doomed to fail” in relation related to the current hotch-potch of Net Zero policies, it comes as some sense of relief for us to get back to our knitting for a while and take a look at some of the recent developments in those aforementioned whats, whys, wheres and hows of green skills. And, in so doing, to remind ourselves that a fair chunk of these so-called ‘green’ skills are actually just great human skills. We’d do well to teach them everywhere.
Image: greenskills.org
Take the latest open-source green skills map initiated by HolonIQ, for example. At first glance, it’s an industrial-strength taxonomy—clean lines, countless nodes, and the buzz of sectoral purpose. Look closer, though, and a quieter truth emerges: nestled between precision agriculture and tidal generator engineering are the skills of human thriving. We’re talking about competencies that don't just power a green economy—they power a good life.
The map categorises over 400 green skill clusters, but some stand out for their everyday relevance. Community education, for instance, isn’t just a job role; it’s the art of sharing knowledge, of listening, of weaving civic fabric. Strategic planning? A life skill in disguise—essential whether you’re designing a solar grid or reimagining your week. Behaviour change and collaboration show up in the workplace, but also in family kitchens and city streets. And lifelong learning is less a green necessity than a universal survival trait.
So, while much of the map is technical and is rightly focused on decarbonising economies, the soft infrastructure of green skills—especially in education, governance, communication, and personal behaviour—echoes what we might simply think of as good citizenship and good thinking. These are not just "green" skills—they're human skills, essential for resilient individuals and societies.
Moving on from all-encompassing green skills maps to those being described for specific sectors, we’re also seeing emerging assets like Navigating Tomorrow, a quietly radical report from South Devon College on skills for the maritime sector which we’re making our Top Read for April.
A key takeaway for us from reading Navigating Tomorrow is that this isn’t just about new tech—it’s about a new mindset. As the sector pivots toward low-carbon fuels, automation, and smarter logistics, the report maps the widening gap between today’s qualifications and tomorrow’s reality. It flags urgent needs: for hands-on clean propulsion training, for cross-sector learning (look to automotive and aerospace), and for rethinking old models of how maritime skills are taught, assessed, and kept current.
But there’s something deeper. Beneath the layers of port strategy and propulsion tech, Navigating Tomorrow also surfaces what we might call great life skills. Skills like situational awareness, not just for steering vessels but for navigating uncertainty. And problem-solving under pressure, whether troubleshooting an ammonia leak or decoding a career shift.
There’s collaboration, of course—across generations, sectors, and tech platforms. And resilience—not just the mechanical kind, but the kind that lets a mid-career worker retrain, retool, and step back on deck. And perhaps most vital: curiosity. A willingness to learn in motion, to stay afloat in change.
South Devon’s report doesn’t pretend this will be easy. Training provision is patchy, pathways are unclear, and retention remains a worry. But it reminds us that the ships we’re building now—literally and metaphorically—will need more than clean fuel. They’ll need skilled people, and even more than that, they’ll need people willing to be skilled anew.
One of the pleasures of producing The Green Edge is when we find ourselves being invited to actually talk to folk who are directly involved in either the teaching or the learning of the skills we endlessly bang on about. It’s like mining the very coal we burn in the grate—which would be a fantastic metaphor if it wasn’t for the fact that the black stuff, through no fault of its own, is one of the villains of the sustainability piece.
Anyway, we got to chat with both a teacher and her learners just recently when we were invited to talk to a group of sophomore HND Business students at West Lothian College. One of the questions we were asked was this: considering the future of green jobs, what would be your advice to this room full of Business students about to embark on their future careers?
How did we answer? Pragmatically and realistically, we hope. Pick up the question and our responses around the 29-minute mark of the now-released YouTube video of the session—or better still, watch the whole thing: the students of West Lothian set us some good questions, and a wrap-up presentation from our guest Kathrin Möbius of EAUC Scotland introduced some great resources coming from her organisation, including a useful Green Careers Guide.
Talking of careers guidance, though, we finish this post with what we feel—uncharacteristically for us, we hope you’d agree—is a bit of a gripe.
To explain: recently, we’ve been taking a bit of time out to do a spot of exams invigilation at one of the more noteworthy schools of Olde England. Which school it might be is not relevant to this narrative, and this is certainly no criticism of the school itself. Rather, it is something we saw sellotaped to the windows of this school’s splendid library, in the area given over to private study and to which we were allowed access for the purpose of finishing off this month’s Digest release between exam sessions.
What we saw was this: a set of posters entitled Where Will <insert subject> Take You? We looked them up and found that they came from a source that will remain nameless but were badged as being linked to the Gatsby Benchmarks and were on sale as a glossy set of 18 for well over a hundred quid (not authorised for printing ‘due to copyright restrictions’) “…linking careers to subjects in school [and will] brighten up your classroom too.”
And—taking Geography as an example—what did we learn that might help us (putting ourselves in the boots of a young geographer) to find our future career?
That many new jobs will be created by 2030 in Agri-Tech;
That primary school and nursery teachers have one of the highest rates of job satisfaction in the UK;
That the public sector employs more than 5 million people across the UK;
That consultants will be in demand (!!);
That in the future, one in six jobs will be in science and research.
In fairness, the small(er) print in the poster did name some careers that our young geographer might go and find out a bit more about—Ecologist, Environmental Officer, Geo-technologist, Surveyor, things like that. But our question was this: how does this help to show directly how what they are learning today can be important for what they need tomorrow?
And it occurred to us, wouldn’t something like this be a bit more helpful?
Rant over. Just something that was bugging us.