The Green Edge Reports Roundup, Sep-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.
֎ Reports we feel are particularly worth a look.
Skills
֎Skills England: Driving growth and widening opportunities
Department for Education, September 2024.
Many of us will remember the work of Sandy Leitch, Prosperity for all in the global economy - world class skills (December 2006), and the birth of UKCES and the strengthening of the Sector Skills Councils. This report reads much the same but was written more quickly. Broadly we’d agree with its direction of travel but find it strange that it doesn’t make use of the European Skills Index. Also, there’s no mention of DEFRA (perhaps nature doesn’t feature in our green future after all), oracy skills get overlooked (alongside literacy and numeracy), and the Catapults only get one mention (ESS Catapult alongside retrofit and energy efficiency). But this is early days, and we would hope that the consultations extend Skills England’s thinking. On the green economy side, we get a section (pages 52-55) and the birth of the Office for Clean Energy Jobs (perhaps a new name for the Green Jobs Delivery Group?). There is also an emphasis on direct skills rather than enabling ones, and generally occupational-based rather than a part of organisation’s capability. Lots of questions at this stage.
The UK Trade Skills Index 2024. An analysis of the skills that are required to deliver our national goals
Capital Economics for Checkatrade, September 2024.
A useful and sobering reminder of the skills challenge ahead for construction and related maintenance, repair and upgrading trades. Over the next 10 years there needs to be 1.3mn recruits and 350,000 apprentices to meet known needs. So, as the report says, this means there must be a greater role for SMEs in apprenticeship provision, and some changes to the use of the apprenticeship levy.
Skills Strategy. Anticipating skills requirements for the engineering profession
Engineers 4 Europe, August 2024.
One to add to our library for the engineering industry. Seeks to incorporate the waves of changes coming from the transition to net zero and wider sustainability, and the uptake of digital technologies. A series of case studies is useful here too. Interestingly, micro-credentials get good billing, and they are an important part of the development of life-long learning (page 29). We suggest this report alongside the Green Comp document, as it covers the 12 competencies in four groups for sustainability.
Climate Action Resource Library
CARL, 2024.
A new resource that seeks to teach and inspire individuals to take climate action through their job functions. Climate action here is defined as greening what you can control (your work responsibilities), innovating where you have expertise, influencing others with or without organising, and signalling the climate emergency. Early days and so has only a few guides available, but a nice idea and to some extent helps those in roles and those aspiring to enter them.
Physics Powering the Green Economy
Institute of Physics, September 2024.
Sends a few powerful messages (using a great set of infographics) about the power and role of physics in bringing great knowledge and skills, in particular in its approaches for solving the problems (through systems thinking) in developing and delivering key net zero technologies. It would be great to see reports like this being integrated into careers advice and guidance for both teacher recruitment and students through to curriculum development.
The Journey to Net Zero for SMEs
Carbon Trust, 2022.
We have been involved in numerous discussions about SMEs and green skills, and we think the various guides developed by the Carbon Trust are helpful. Apart from the general guide, there are also others covering energy management (six in all), sectors (7, including agriculture, manufacturing, retail, warehousing and logistics, and hospitality), technology (9), and a series of energy saving tools. As an SME takes a net zero step, its staff need to take on green skills to solve specific problems. It’s just the same with the range of regulations that cover sustainability that needs to tackled and incorporated in order to continuing trading.
Labour Market
֎Making Skills Work: The path to solving the productivity crisis
City & Guilds and Lifelong Learning Institute, September 2024.
An informative and informed discussion of skills policy in England, and the emergence of Skills England. Takes us through previous policies from centralised to market approaches, and to today with Skills England and how it needs to operate. We would make a few points: there is a key role for Catapults, the ‘data cube’ of UKRI/Innovate UK on driving a data driven approach along with the Skills Compass work of IfATE. There is a really worrying and challenging matrix (page 45) which says construction has extensive skills needs but is unlikely to invest in solutions.
֎Australian Universities Accord
Australian Government, February 2024.
There’s so much to learn from this report and the approach which underpins it to shape a future path for the development of universities in Australia. For us it makes a few key points: one, if Skills England is to drive the process of meeting all the skills needs across England (and with other bodies across the UK), it must be able to operate across the whole skills system; second, the time frame adopted here is 20+ years, and to take society forward must be framed in generational terms, not just short-term political electoral cycles. We think both Skills England and Universities UK have much to learn from this detailed and extensive report.
Striking the balance:A review of 11-16 curriculum and assessment in England
Oxford, Cambridge and RSA (OCR), September 2024.
A well-timed report and is well into Becky Francis’s Review for the new UK Government. Of particular note is the prominence of climate change and sustainability. It rightly recognises that sustainability cuts across all of our futures and this needs to be fully reflected in the schools’ curriculum going forward.
֎A Checklist for Green Workforce Assessments: Europe On Guidelines for the Implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directives’ Workforce Provision
European Electrical Contractors Association, May 2024.
A methodology and guidance note to derive the workforce constraints on delivering energy efficiency and climate change targets. Makes an important point about the potential trap of job degradation where the future projections reduce the future skills requirement based on the minimum set of tasks to be undertaken - i.e. the issue here is also about deskilling of future workforce projections rather than noting the value of taking the whole job perspective. Worth also looking at Powering Green Jobs Growth which the EECA drafted in July 2021.
The Journey to Green Jobs: Taking the pulse on the transition to green skills and jobs
Get Zero and the 5% Club, September 2024.
A useful summary of the journey to green skills and jobs illustrated by numerous case studies.
Flex without compromise. Preserving apprenticeships for young people under a growth and skills levy
Edge Foundation, September 2024.
A timely report putting forward a thoughtful analysis of the apprenticeship levy and apprenticeships, given the proposed changes to be brought about by Skills England. We find the 11 options for reform beyond the levy, and a further 6 options for within the levy. For us, a test here is to ensure that any changes must protect young people entering apprenticeships (and push the intake to under 19) and to raise their quality, support and outcomes (boost completions). Skills England will need to do some robust modelling and share their workings very quickly if they want to carry all employers, employees, trade unions and students along with them.
Building a stronger FE college workforce
NFER for Gatsby, September 2024.
A practical study of a key issue: the staffing of FE colleges which are a key part of the UK education and training structure. It’s a little surprising that the parallel with schools (which is mentioned) is not developed further: within schools there are extensive bandings of pay, additional payment mechanisms, and also leadership roles for teachers. Yes, retention is difficult within schools (runs at around 15-17%) but still there is much to learn here.
Employment, economic inactivity and incapacity: past lessons and implications for future policy: A thought paper written for the Commission for Healthier Working Lives
Health Foundation, September 2024.
One of the challenges for the UK’s labour market is to ensure that there are processes, with support, to help people back into work from periods of inactivity due to ill health. This brief paper walks us through some of the issues. Our interest here comes from the volume of work being foreseen as the transition to net zero gathers pace, and requires additional workers and policies to help people back into work.
Firm-level adoption of AI and automation technologies: Case studies report
Institute for the Future Work, August 2024.
A useful set of 11 case studies, three of which are green covering welding and agriculture (whilst they are termed AI case studies). The overlap between green and AI is large and inter-dependent.
Innovation in Career Pathways across five countries
OECD Education Working Papers No. 320, 2024.
Takes data from Australia, Canada, USA, New Zealand, and Scotland and looks at the impact of more general vocational programmes on work entry outcomes (career entry). It adopts the transition from school where learning about work starts, then into learning through work, and finally, learning for work. General message: vocational programmes do provide career resilience and successful work entry. When the UK is seeking to boost the talent entering mid-skill occupations in support of economic growth and the transition to net zero, this report would suggest the T Level programme (England) and the Foundational Apprenticeship programme (Scotland) could be instrumental in meeting key skills shortages and gaps in the near future.
Building a skills engine for the human economy
Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalisation, Vol 13, No 3-4, Spring 2023.
A general discussion looking towards the future of jobs and the centrality of skills. We feel the paper overplays the degree of skills churn: for some jobs this is undoubtedly true, but there are many where the skills are relatively fixed. The rate of churn is certainly high for those jobs where the wave of change is being brought about by digitalisation, data science and AI. We would like to see the direction of this analysis applied to the growing clean tech and green economy. We will be discussing the content of this paper with its author (Matt Seligman) in November.
Education: the ideas
Nesta, September 2024.
A thought-provoking set of ideas, and two in particular about skills: youth apprenticeships, and sub-degree qualifications. Making the skills system really work for everyone and from the start is critical, and these two ideas might well act as key bridges in securing more successful entries into work and careers. Add STEM and sustainability to these two skills strands then we can start to tackle well established skills shortages and gaps.
Our greatest asset: The final report of the IPPR Commission on Health and Poverty
IPPR, September 2024.
We have raised many times the issue of capacity across the UK labour market being able to supply sufficient people to take on the huge volume of work during the transition to net zero. Well, this report covers the growing numbers of people of working age but for health reasons are not available for work, and how they can be helped back to full health and into near full-time employment. If this area is of interest, then two other reports published this month are worth reading: Working for the Future by the Commission on the Future of Employment Support run by IES, and No Progress? Tackling long-term insecure work by the Work Foundation at Lancaster University. Understanding the whole capacity of the UK labour market and the issue of “work quality” and “work security”, and the need for effort support for the transition into employment.
The Future of Good Jobs: Projections through to 2031
Center on Education and Workforce, Georgetown University, September 2024.
An interesting analysis showing the growth in the number of good jobs accessed through three prime pathways: bachelor’s degree, middle-skill, and high school. Interestingly, in middle-skill and high school pathways circular economy roles emerge as the ones with high promise.
International Talent Programs in a Changing Global Environment
National Academies, September 2024.
A thorough review of talent programmes and their importance to the US economy. Makes the point to us that the work of Skills England (with the Migration Advisory Committee) needs to think along similar lines and to develop a clear attraction and retention set of policies for the good of the UK economy. STEM talent features strongly but we think this could be expanded to other areas too.
Career coaching: A case study in evaluating impact
IES, September 2024.
With the growth of the green economy and the ability for it attract individuals from aligned and non-aligned careers, this needs to be supported in a professional way. We see this report as feeding into this area to boost the understanding of career coaching, and raise the profile of the profession of career counsellors.
National Preparedness Commission (Organisation)
An intriguing organisation which is walking into the skills and labour market aspects of resilience and the ability to cope with major shocks to the system. We can see several shocks likely to hit the UK over the coming years as a direct result of climate change - both across the UK and elsewhere - disrupting food supply.
Devolution & Regional Development
֎Economic Impact Scenarios for Scotland’s Energy Transition
Scottish Enterprise, September 2024.
A really important piece of work looking across 18 low carbon sub-sectors in two scenarios: strong ambition and business as usual. Apart from the employment projections (see the tables in Appendix D, pages 33-35), two tables stuck with us: Table 1 Scottish company capability scores and scale of investment by sector (page 10); and Table 2 Scottish R&D capability ranking and commercial readiness of sector (page 12). These give a good view as to the health for the future for key clean tech growth and investment, and the gaps that need to be addressed. It would be good to see this analysis repeated for all of the English regions and major cities, as well as the other two nations of the UK. Plus, it is worth reading a study of investor readiness for offshore and onshore wind, and hydrogen.
Green Industrial Strategy
Scottish Government, September 2024.
A key enabler for the further development of the Scottish (Green) economy is skills (“the right workforce with the right skills”) which has five key capabilities: responsive to need; awareness for careers; transferability between sectors (brown to green); support for businesses; and migration. The last item will be interesting, to see if migration will be a devolved issue. It is worth noting that Skills England will have direct links to the Migration Advisory Committee. It is also worth reading the wider Programme for Government 2024-25 Serving Scotland which places this industrial strategy within two of the four priorities in Scotland i.e. growing the economy, and tackling the climate emergency.
Note of proceedings: Research futures within the green economy sector for climate action
Climate X Change, August 2024.
As we have come to expect from work being undertaken in Scotland, this is a report of an experimental horizon-scanning workshop asking several questions, including what the green economy looks like in Scotland, and what are the key priorities for driving forward a green economy. A useful start and we would suggest a wider group of people are involved, including local authorities, the major Scottish cities, and the Highlands and Islands. We look forward to reading the outcome of the follow-up events. An excellent sets of slides is also available from the event from Strathclyde University, Scottish Enterprise, and the Scottish Government, all of which are very thought provoking.
Regional Report and Sector Reports: Energy, Food and Drink, and Forestry and Timber. Highland Climate Risk and Opportunity Assessment. Economic Analysis.
Paul Watkiss Associates for Highland Adapts (a partnership of nine founding organisations), Summer 2024.
An excellent set of reports that do some future gazing and assessment across three key sectors in the Highlands of Scotland. Each assessment could lead to a series of avoidance actions and new sets of skills to prevent the worst impacts, For example, the forestry and timber report looks at three prime sets of risks coming from wind, wildfire, and drought/pests/diseases. Much of the transition to net zero tends not to address this area of future skills and actions requirements.
A Just Transition for Shetland
Just Transition Commission, Scotland, September 2024.
There is something very relatable in the Just Transition Commission’s reports as they capture the mood, understanding and desire to practical act to cope with the coming changes. We think there is a lot for England to learn from these reports as they are great examples of community engagement, which is critical to ensuring the grand plans and targets of national governments are grounded in the acceptable reality of individual homes.
Enabling a place-based, just transition to net zero: Guidance for stakeholders in Grangemouth
UK IDRIC (Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre), March 2024.
The guidance outlined in this report along with the place-based just transition framework will be tested with the recent announcement by Petroineos to close the oil refinery in the second quarter of 2025. Multiple communities will be impacted by the transition to net zero, and there needs to be a high level of sharing as to how best to provide high impact, accelerator interventions. It is worth noting that the UK economy has been through many place-based adjustments as major employers have closed or reduced in size in industries like iron and steel, coal mining and so on.
Place-based industrial strategy responds to past and future industrial and labour market shocks
Brookings Institution, August 2024.
Makes the very simple point about the alignment of the US clean tech and wider industrial policies, their geography and their impact. A simple lesson for UK industrial and regional development thinking and plans. One thing that the UK could add would be around skills, and the provision of forward-looking data to drive high alignment for work entry and career changes.
How offshore wind development can support coastal regeneration. Global overview and best practices for South Korea
Carbon Trust for the Global Wind Energy Council, May 2024.
A powerful study with ample evidence showing the benefit of offshore wind and the requirements of the local education and training providers to respond to new, long-term skills demand.
Mainstreaming Inclusive Growth: Framework and Toolkit
Inclusive Growth Network housed at the Centre for Progressive Policy, November 2023.
As local and combined authorities seek to develop growth plans and respond to the growth opportunities of the green and digital economies, this document provides a useful framework to provide structure and challenge to their thinking. We could see this framework being combined with other local planning frameworks, like the LSIPs for skills in England.
Mission-Oriented Industrial Strategy: Global Insights
IIPP, University College London, July 2024.
As the new UK Government develops its thinking and policies around industrial strategy, we will hear more and more about a mission-oriented approach. We have already seen this as regards renewables and the appointment of Chris Stark to lead Mission Control. This makes good sense given the transformational impact of the net zero transition across multiple sectors. We wonder where education and training - and, in particular, Skills England - fits into this approach.
The Economic Impact of Higher Education Teaching, Research and Innovation
London Economics for Universities UK, August 2024.
A powerful study showing UK universities contributing £265bn to the UK economy each year. When this analysis is updated we’d like to see if the contribution can be split across major UK Government priority areas, like the transition to net zero, economic growth, and social mobility. Most of us agree that universities are a major part of driving the economy and society forward, and having this reported on each year would be a major benefit. Perhaps the Office for Students and the National Audit Office could work together on this?
The Capital Markets of Tomorrow: Delivering over £100bn of new capital into the UK economy every year
Capital Markets Industry Taskforce, September 2024.
Huge potential if realised, but we’d like to see the green aspect of this additional investment, as many green (clean tech and zero carbon energy) projects are tailor-made for this additional capital. The proposed allocations suggested here are £20-30bn to build 300,000 houses per year, £20bn for offshore wind and solar power, £8bn for water infrastructure, £15bn for growing tech and life sciences, and up to £8bn for the rollout of electric vehicles. Perhaps GB Energy will be able to leverage some of this additional capital behind its projects, and get a flow of investment into sustainability and circular economy education and training to drive future consumer demand.
Pot Pourri
UK Net Zero Census 2024
UK Business Climate Hub, September 2024.
Well worth a dive into this report as progress towards a net zero target drives green skills acquisition, development and deployment. The report also covers the requests being made for emissions data from suppliers and so sparking activity across the supply chain. It will be interesting to see how the findings from this survey-based census are fed into the wider development of UK-wide net zero workforce plans.
The Sustainability Trends Report 2024
Generation IM, September 2024.
An excellent review of progress across transportation, industry, power, buildings, and power, land and food. Plus, of course, financing the transition. Well worth a read to put any niche areas of interest into context.
Small Business, Green Growth
Small Business Britain with BT and Oxford Brookes Business School, May 2024.
We took two messages from this report: first, small businesses are progressing (see the graph on page 12 and see that 14% of SMEs have sustainability are their core, with a further 20% having taken major steps); and second, green opportunities and sustainability is driving growth for a quarter of those consulted. Two messages that provide some degree of optimism.
The time-value of carbon: An introductory exploration to support better decision making
Arup, September 2024.
Addresses two questions: first, should we value upfront embodied carbon savings higher than operational carbon savings; and second, how much should we value the delaying of emissions. A critical set of questions for the built environment, and ones that need confronting in any infrastructure project. Addressing this question also starts to shape priorities around achieving net zero and the skills that help to deliver those priorities.
The Future of European Competitiveness. Part B. In depth analysis and recommendations. The Draghi Report.
EU, September 2024.
Both parts of this report are interesting, but we took particular interest in Part B where a range of sectors - 10 in all, including energy, clean tech, and auto - receive detailed consideration. Plus, in the cross-cutting themes we see an insightful chapter on ‘closing the skills gap’ in green and digital. But the main message of the report is a powerful and worrying one: the EU is falling behind China and the USA and requires €800bn additional annual investment.