Greener, faster, smarter—but are we keeping up?
Frankly, if we’re not using data to track the skills revolution, we’re just fumbling in the dark. And Lightcast’s got a torch the size of a lighthouse.
The UK job market is shifting under our feet, and Lightcast’s latest report The UK Skills Revolution: Building a Data-Driven Skills System in an Era of Disruption, is helping to map out the tremors.
This month’s Green Edge top read dives deep into how skills are changing—what’s in, what’s out, and what it all means for the green workforce. Spoiler: it’s less about green jobs, more about jobs turning green.
First, let’s talk churn. Lightcast’s Skills Disruption Index tracks how much the top 20 skills for the average UK job have changed over the past three years. The answer? By a whopping 33%. That’s a third of what employers want from workers flipping over in just three years. If skills were fashion trends, we’d be watching last season’s must-haves getting chucked into the charity bin.
This rapid change is being felt most in four priority sectors: digital technology, housebuilding and construction, life sciences, and the green workforce. But here’s the thing, and we’ve mentioned this more than a few times—when we talk about the ‘green workforce,’ we’re not necessarily talking about ‘green jobs.’ Instead, we’re seeing the rise of greening jobs—traditional roles absorbing green skills like a sponge. The landscape isn’t necessarily filling up with eco-warriors in hard hats; instead it’s about existing workers picking up carbon accounting, sustainable design, or electric vehicle maintenance on the job.
Top 15 Occupations Requiring Green Skills. Source: Lightcast
Lightcast’s data makes this crystal clear. Looking at the top 15 occupations requiring green skills, only four are officially classified as ‘green jobs.’ The rest? Engineers, project managers, electricians, even safety coordinators. For those who may still be struggling to understand—if you thought ‘green workforce’ just means solar panel installers and sustainability consultants, think again.
This shifts the conversation from ‘creating green jobs’ to ‘greening the workforce.’ And that’s a much bigger task. It means retraining and upskilling current workers rather than just producing a new crop of eco-specialists. Training providers, take note: the demand isn’t just for new green courses, but for integrating green skills into existing ones. Project managers don’t need to start over—they need to learn about circular economy principles and low-carbon supply chains. Mechanical engineers aren’t out of a job; they just need to get fluent in energy efficiency and emissions reduction.
The Lightcast report lays out a powerful analysis, but we see three areas where it could go further:
Skills Mastery & Frequency: We know which skills are growing, but how do you actually acquire them? Which ones are quick ‘add-ons’ learned on the job, and which require formal training? For workers, this is crucial—do they need a weekend course, a full qualification, or just hands-on experience? A useful follow-up to this report, perhaps.
The Skills Ecosystem: No job exists in a vacuum. Take construction—new methods like modular housing are changing the sector, but that impacts everything from supply chains to planning departments. Skills don’t just shift within one sector; they ripple outwards.
The Role of Place: National data is great, but what does this look like at a local level? Are skills changing faster in high-growth areas? Are green skills more in demand in innovation hubs than in slower-growing regions? Localised data—like that from The Data City—could paint a clearer picture of where change is happening the fastest. Is there also a link to be made with the analysis presented here with the LSIPs (hopefully) now being used across England to drive skills provision?
The UK Skills Revolution report makes one thing crystal clear: the labour market is moving, and moving fast. AI, digitalisation, and the green economy are rewriting job descriptions overnight. Some sectors are feeling the shake-up more than others—tech, marketing, and media are leading the charge, while hands-on jobs like construction and hospitality are (so far) seeing less disruption.
But ‘less disruption’ doesn’t mean ‘no change.’ Lightcast points out that even in slower-moving sectors like housebuilding, skills demand is shifting. The government wants to build 1.5 million new homes in the next five years. That’s ambitious, to say the least, especially when almost one-third of all construction firms are already struggling to find skilled workers. Where are all these people coming from? Upskilling and retraining from adjacent sectors is one answer. But how do we actually make that happen at scale?
And then there’s life sciences—a sector that’s booming, but mostly in geographic clusters. Oxford, Cambridge, Swindon, and a few other hotspots dominate the scene. Trying to ‘spread the jobs around’ makes little sense. Instead, the focus should be on strengthening those clusters, ensuring that companies in these regions have the talent pipelines they need to keep growing.
Lightcast’s data is a goldmine, but it’s only useful if it leads to action. Right now, we’re facing a skills crunch where employers say they can’t find the right people, workers don’t know what skills they need next, and training providers are still catching up to the new reality.
The real challenge isn’t spotting the change—it’s responding to it. We need:
Smarter skills training that isn’t just about qualifications but about real-world skills that map to evolving job roles.
Better employer engagement so businesses don’t just complain about skills gaps but actively help fill them.
Localised strategies that acknowledge that what works in London might not work in Leeds, and vice versa.
One in three job skills have already changed since 2021. The next three years are unlikely to slow down. The question isn’t whether we’re in a skills revolution—it’s whether we’re ready for it.
And right now? We’ve got some catching up to do.