The Green Edge Reports Roundup, June-24: Part One - General
Continuing with our selection of reports and other publications from this month’s reading list.
Again this month, we’re splitting our reading list into two posts. This one covers general categories. For Sectors, see Part Two.
As usual, you can find all these reports and more in our searchable reports list on The Green Edge Data Portal.
֎ Reports we feel are particularly worth a look.
Skills
֎The great skills divide: how learning inequalities risk holding the UK back
Learning and Work Institute, May 2024.
A powerful, short report telling the tale of underfunding of adult education and training both by the Government and employers. Lower-level qualifications are critical to support work entry, bridging the movement between roles, and onward for further progress. Without getting the funding and approach right for adults, part from holding back the UK economy and society (projected to be around £20bn). It will also impact the net zero transition.
֎Green skills: the growing demand for sustainable careers in the resources and waste sector
IEMA, Suez UK, Energy and Utility Skills, and CIWM, June 2024.
Link (you must register before you can view)
This is a recording of an annual online event run by Suez UK and this time there are inputs from IEMA, Energy and Utility Skills and CIWM. Well worth a view and listen to hear from four very well informed and committed speakers – three of whom are members of the Green Jobs Delivery Group.
֎Accelerating green skills in Local London through effective industry engagement – a summary report
Crystal Associates for Local London Green Jobs and Skills Partnership, March 2023.
This summary report focuses on green skills provision across 9 colleges and 8 programme areas (subjects/skill clusters). Our interest is in both the detail and also the direction of travel to create a centre of excellence for green skills covering known demand skills areas. A model document, useful in that it provides a framework for creating an across-college structure and approach to progress their green skills agenda.
Recognising Green Skills Through Non-Formal Learning: a comparative study in Asia
Education for Sustainability Volume 5, Springer, 2022.
Neither a quick nor an easy read but well worthwhile, working at as it takes us into a deep understanding of green skills and the greening of work through case studies. We also learn about generic green competences that are relevant across the whole economy and in all occupations.
Environmental regulation and green skills: an empirical exploration
Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economist, Volume 5, 2018.
Takes two groups of green skills, engineering and managerial, and looks at the impact of regulations upon both. Little or no impact was found, which is a little surprising as we would expect regulations as being a driver for environmental standards and the transition to net zero. As is often the case, O*NET data was used here and shows its values to exploring the changes happening across the world of work.
Skills for a Sustainable Skyline: Rapid evidence assessment for the SSS taskforce
Work Advance for the SSS taskforce, November 2022.
We have listed other work from the SSS taskforce, and this is a useful briefing document which captures the range of issues around green construction (retrofitting in the main).
Skills for a Green Transition: Solutions for Youth on the Move
Unicef, January 2024.
There are some useful charts and frameworks in here e.g. a green skills framework. One of its conclusions is intriguing to us, and it is the one promoting self-employment and entrepreneurship for the route into green jobs and occupations. Quite a large part of the net zero transition – in particular the installation of key net zero technologies – does rely on micro and small businesses that are owner-managed. Perhaps this is a theme that could be explored in UK green and skills policy.
Tackling the climate and biodiversity crises: IEMA’s key recommendations for UK policy makers – 2024
IEMA, June 2024.
Link (scroll down)
First off in this set of recommendations are green skills and jobs which IEMA is very well placed to advise and comment on, and makes three general proposals for action.
Product life extension behaviours for electrical appliances in UK households: Can consumer education help extend product life amid the cost-of-living crisis?
Resources, Conservation, and Recycling, Volume 205, June 2024.
A fascinating look at consumers developing “skills” to extend the life of the electrical appliances we all use in our homes. We have to wonder though how will the appropriate life-extending skills be developed, and one presumes this will occur through online videos accessed through product QR codes.
Labour Market
֎Under-representation in green careers. Analysis to support Workforce Integration Network Skills Academies
IES for the GLA, 2022.
We don’t see enough details of how green jobs and careers can be opened up to literally everyone and to prevent the replication of the biases we have seen operating under the old fossil fuel economy. Not enough skills plans cover the actual and potentially excluded people and building a series of bridge to help everyone benefit from the net zero transition. This is where we see full fair and equitable policies covering the net zero transition, we see the full range of options are opened up for everyone.
֎Briefing: Workforce integration and inclusion in the green industry
Mayor of London/GLA, November 2022.
Great collation of data on the green economy in London and specially around construction with some helpful frameworks and pathways used. The whole issue of diversity is also the focus and high likelihood of exclusion for many from benefitting from the net zero transition.
֎Post-School Education and Skills Reform: Consultation on legislation
Scottish Government, June 2024.
A very timely consultation on the roles of Skills Development Scotland, Scottish Funding Council, and the Scottish Awards Agency Scotland. The outcome of this consultation could well shape the development of equivalent bodies in England.
֎Local skills improvement plans: a review of their impact and opportunities for the future
Association of Colleges, June 2024.
Excellent review of LSIPs, covering what they have achieved and what they must offer if they are to be built on over the next few years. Four main areas of recommendations: place-based partnerships, deep employer engagement, continuity and local discretion of funding, and clear local accountability. All illustrated with named case studies which points to where colleges have built some strong, effective networks. In Annex B we find a table which lists the priorities identified by the 32 LSIPs, and surprisingly only 12 identify “green” as a priority. Perhaps some green skills are covered in construction, land base/agri-tech/food, and manufacturing and engineering.
֎Flex and match: a new Skills Levy for growth and opportunity
Learning and Work Institute, June 2024.
Provides a good status report on apprenticeships and “the levy” and makes a series of workable proposals to make changes to boost uptake, engage SMEs, and use the levy to grow the amount of skills development taking place. With a new Government due in the UK, it is fairly certain that the Apprenticeship Levy will be reviewed and hopefully improved upon.
֎Delivering integrated climate education, skills and professional standards: Report and recommendations
St. George’s House Consultation, February 2024.
Leveraging key parts of the education system to make progress on climate education is a good strategy, and this consultation run in February (released in June) worked with Professional, Statutory, and Regulations Bodies as to how this might work. Remember professional bodies oversee the licence-to-practice of around 13 million people in the UK (over a third of the UK’s workforce), which means they can influence occupational standards, degree and wider curriculum content, etc. An important contribution made by EAUC and SOS. We should add we did review the initial draft of this report for the organisers, and they graciously accepted many of the points we made.
֎Skills 2030: Building a world-class skills system
Skills Commission supported by Policy Connect, May 2024.
Adds further weight to the call for a national, England-wide body (we think it should be UK-wide) overseeing skills, and here they call it the Skills and Workforce Council. It is very significant that “workforce” is in the title as combining the nature of work and the skills for work together helps fill a gap across current Government departments. Other clear messages are the need for greater devolution, continuity and predictability of funding, integration of polices, apprenticeship levy flexibility (to focus on L2 and L3 qualifications), and importantly, the recognition of prior learning. We would expect a new UK Government to learn and lean in on this report and others pushing to fill the vacuum on skills leadership.
Investing in the future: policy priorities for STEM workforce planning, education and skills
Engineering UK, June 2024.
Two main thrusts: a call for a national workforce strategy and plan for engineering; and, a clear set of priorities across STEM education and skills (careers provision, apprenticeships, T Levels, and teacher recruitment, training and retention). We have already had two major workforce strategies and plans developed: one for the NHS and one to be published for the transition to net zero, and we see the call here for one for engineering makes good sense, and would underpin the growth of the economy as well as progressing net zero plans. What is very clear is that the next five years in the UK will call for a widely supported set of priorities around skills and net zero.
A manifesto for science: building a more resilient and prosperous future
Royal Society, December 2023.
While not produced for the UK General Election, the key themes in this manifesto are timeless: support for R&D, a pathway for net zero, and developing skills for the future economy. A short agenda around critical elements of making progress and split by timelines (first 100 days, parliamentary term, and longer term). The focus on maths is understandable and promoting a core maths qualification combining academic and practical applications rather than the wider STEM or STEAM subjects, but a mention of the underlying capabilities from studying science could have been brought out a little more (especially around systems thinking).
֎Strengthening Governance Arrangements in the English Post-16 Skills System
Work Advance for the Association of College, June 2024.
A very timely report looking at the key governance functions of a central body e.g. establishing priorities, defining appropriate financial and non-financial incentives, supporting policy innovations and improvements, assuring the quality of skills policy and practices, monitoring progress and evaluating impacts, shaping and developing the institutional infrastructure, supporting delivery, and enabling broad and deep stakeholder engagement. These policy functions are pursued here using an OECD framework. Why timely? What we read here reminds us of the work of Sam Leitch which gave rise to the UKCES, and also the proposed Skills England which is proposed by the Labour Party in the UK. Sadly, this study does not walk into funding across FE and HE, and how to align the whole skills system, nor does it get into the occupational data options (like a UK version of O*NET and ESCO) combined.
An analysis of the demand for skills in the labour market in 2035
Skills Imperative 2035, Working Paper No 3, University of Sheffield and NFER, May 2023.
Makes extensive use of O*NET data to look in details at 161 different skills descriptors for 412 UK occupations to produce a view of the essential employment skills. Not surprisingly the top 10 skills used most intensively don’t vary much by 2035, but the greatest employment growth is amongst professional and associate professional occupations. We wonder with the calls for an over-arching skills organisation in England if we will see a UK O*NET being established.
Skills in transition: the way to 2035
Cedefop, 2023.
Similar to the report above, but quickly turn to Chapter 3 (pages 43-54) for “Going stronger, going green(er): skills for EU’s green growth strategy”. Using job adverts data the analysis finds: 13% of jobs will be high intensity green jobs, 25% medium intensity; 16% some green skills, and 46% no green skill (much like the estimates of the Climate Change Committee analysis for the UK). Four sectors are picked out: waste management, circular economy, agri-food, and smart green cities. A useful reference source, and no doubt will be drawn upon.
Productivity
NIESR General Election Briefing, June 2024.
Powerful brief document which picks up on skills and education, and skills mismatches as being among the root causes of poor UK productivity levels, and makes a series of suggestions of how to address them. Hopefully all aspirant politicians and policy developers read this document.
The UK Insecure Work Index 2024
Work Foundation at Lancaster University, February 2024.
While there is a lot of talk about “good jobs” in the green economy, we have to remember that around 20% of all work is in jobs that can be regarded as being insecure. Why is this important to thinking about green jobs and employment? Simply, amongst this 20% of insecure job holders, there are many who are interested and able to enter the growing green economy but might find a series of barriers to them progress their interest and careers.
EURES Report on labour shortages and surpluses, 2023
European Labour Authority, 2024.
This is a fascinating report, and when we dig into the detail we find Table 4 (page 23) ‘Widespread shortage occupations (identified by at least 11 countries) by number of countries and share of high severity, 2023’. Which occupations do we expect to find on the list? It is full of everyday, quite traditional occupations: welders, plumbers, pipefitters, motor mechanics, electricians, etc. (there are 38 in all). There are no green occupations on the list, and in fact 27 of the 38 are heavily biased towards hands-plus-head skilled ones i.e. not knowledge worker biased. What does this say about skills systems across Europe, and their effectiveness? Well worth reading and stopping what the report is saying about how we need a skills system to work.
Some college, no credential
National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, June 2024.
While this report and analysis is for the USA (done annually) for those students who attended college but did not gain a formal qualification, it is also very relevant to the UK. Both to improve the quality of work and life chances people can pursue, it also has a direct impact on productivity growth across the economy if the capabilities of everyone is raised. There is also a direct health benefit to individuals. What is not captured here is the learning that has been gained at college and at work which could be assessed, and a qualification (credential) awarded.
Levelling-up/Regional Development
֎Where next for SMEs and Net Zero?
UKERC, June 2024.
This is a rare and valuable report as SMEs are rarely considered as to their role in the net zero transition. Here we see the Governance of SMEs for Net Zero (GoZero) used as the core data set which draws on the experience of nearly 2,000 SMEs across five sectors (restaurants, hairdressers, construction, steel and horticulture) and five locations (South-East Scotland, Belfast, South Yorkshire, Oxfordshire, and Swansea Bay). We can see this report, with its very informative charts, being used by local authorities as they develop their net zero plans.
֎Are we ready? Navigating the green transition in an age of uncertainty
Centre for Progressive Policy, May 2024.
Really interesting study with a few key findings: workers who could most easily be retrained into green jobs are spread unequally across the country; and workers who could most easily be retrained into “increased demand” jobs and “new and emerging” jobs tend to live in different types of areas. Conclusion: green jobs can help with levelling-up but they are not a silver bullet.
How do the last five years measure up on levelling up?
IFS, June 2024.
Simple message: ambitious White Paper, insufficient funding, too slow release of funding (admittedly badly hit by inflation), and overall, glacial progress. Three questions we would raise: what can we learn from the overall levelling-up policy to-date? What role can the transition to net zero make in levelling-up? Which local areas have managed to create capital investment without winning contested funding from central government?
Local Skills Improvement Plans Stage 2 Guidance: Objectives
Department for Education, June 2024.
Releasing this update now (June 26th) is a little strange, and it will be important to know how LSIPs will fare with the new Government, and if the objectives might be altered and the funding modified (increased?). To-date the LSIP process in England has made progress and has had some impact. The DfE needs to consider how it can further support LSIPs by providing a robust information system that allows a common language and common skills assessments to be developed.
The Return of Industrial Policy in Data
IMF, January 2024. WP/24/1
Looking at the trend described here is the steady and increasing rapid rise of industrial policy across the world. The focus is across seven industrial areas of which three are directly or indirectly green i.e. low carbon, critical minerals, and advanced technology. Looking at the trend we wonder if the growth is due to the development of a series of new platform technologies upon which economies (and future competitive positions) will be based, and also the need for their wide applicability i.e. the transition towards net zero, the application of AI, etc. Skills hardly get a mention, whereas labour markets get a single mention.
How have English council’s funding and spending changed? 2010 – 2024
IFS, June 2024.
Understanding the background to local authority finances is an important context for seeing how they can play a role in skills development. It is clear local authorities will need to be creative if they are to progress their net zero intentions by harnessing local assets and capabilities.
Levelling Up
NIESR General Election Briefing, June 2024.
Excellent review of the approach to levelling-up in the UK looking across the current policies four objectives and 12 missions. Education and skills feature strongly as areas requiring greater investment. Interesting the report notes that around 4-5% of GDP should be invested in levelling-up if the variations across the UK are to be closed (matching what we see in Germany). Currently the UK has committed c£11bn of which around 10% has been allocated and invested. Levelling-up is a key area to drive economic and social opportunity for all UK citizens but also a core part of any growth strategy making the best use of all available resources. Let’s hope the next five years builds on what has been learnt about both micro-policies for levelling-up and devolution.
Coastal Inquiry update report 2024
APPG for Coastal Communities, May 2024.
Many coastal communities are severely challenged and this APPG work seeks to looks at them and to understand the issues that are holding them back. Skills get two parts of the report here: skills and aspirations (pages 20-24), and the input from Maritime UK (pages 89-91) which walks into green skills. Green skills have a potential role to play in economically and socially challenged communities that are not built around major ports.
Carbon Neutral Island 2040 sector readiness and skills assessment
Climate X Change, June 2024 (released)
Covers six islands (Islay, Raasay, Hoy, Yell, Barra, and Great Cumbrae) and the businesses there where it is evident that there is high awareness, interest and commitment but lack specific knowledge and skills required to decarbonise (see skills section, pages 12-15).
Life in the slow lane: Assessing the UK’s economic and trade performance since 2010
Resolution Foundation, June 2024.
Provides the context in which the next phase of the net zero transition will take place, and places the additional levels of investment required to achieve the next carbon budgets (see Figure 17, page 30). Whilst the challenge of increasing the levels of investment is huge, so is raising productivity growth which is key to boosting the development and application of technologies critical to the net zero transition. Implicit in what is reported, skills are central to making lasting progress.
Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places
Paul Collier, Allen Lane, June 2024.
A great read with a simple message for us: true, lasting regeneration is driven by developing local agency which supports the move towards greater devolution with informed funding and support. Given the transition to net zero relies upon multiple alliances at local levels, there is a clear overlap between the regeneration and building a circular economy.
֎Evidence briefing: Assessing the impact of improving access to debt finance on local economic growth
What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth, LSE and Centre for Cities, May 2024.
Our interest here is simple, how can debt finance be used to help businesses develop, and perhaps, even green businesses. A good discussion, and should be part of the economic growth plans and thinking of local authorities.
Accelerating Decarbonisation in the United States: Technology, Policy, and Societal Dimensions
National Academies, 2024.
Not a quick read, but if pressed for time it is worth jumping to pages 194-243, which cover workforce issues connected to the net zero transition (a brief summary is also to be found in Table 4.1). Simple message: there is a need for a very active workforce engagement programme to handle dislocated and potentially disadvantaged workers (predominantly in the fossil fuel industries of coal, oil, gas, tar sands, etc.).
Great Britain? How we get our future back
Torsten Bell, Bodley Head, June 2024.
Net zero is woven through this excellent analysis and prescription, and a key part of the future of Great Britain. Small spoiler alert, if you have read most of the outputs of the Resolution Foundation you will know much of what is in this new book.
Pot Pourri
֎Climate and Green Transition Policies
NIESR General Election Briefing, June 2024.
Simple set of messages to all parties: go faster and harder, focus on energy, transport and buildings, and develop greater alignment between central and local government. It also highlights a key enabler for the transition.