17 February 2025
The Energy Security and Net Zero Select (ESNZ) Committee is currently running an inquiry into developing the workforce needed to deliver the government’s clean energy ambitions. ISEP has provided written evidence to the Committee and in this short blog Ben Goodwin, the Institute’s Director of Policy and Public Affairs, sets out what we have recommended.
The overarching focus of the insight that we shared with the ESNZ Committee was on the need for a joined-up green jobs and skills plan that takes account of both the climate and biodiversity challenges that we face.
If the government is to meet its ambition to – de facto – deliver clean energy by 2030, then there is of course no doubt that targeted workforce investment is required. Few would argue with either the aim here or the need to ensure that the jobs and skills that are required to achieve it are in place.
However, there is a broader perspective that also needs to be properly considered.
Hitting our long-term climate and wider environmental targets requires integrated policy and regulatory intervention, investment, planning and not least workforce development. Our recommendations to the ESNZ Committee speak to this logic.
Having worked extensively with our members to develop tools and resources for creating a greener workforce in a just and progressive way, we set out the following recommendations to the ESNZ Committee:
–> Continuous and transparent government engagement with businesses, educational organisations and other key stakeholders is required to ensure that a fluid picture of the workforce requirements for meeting the Government’s Clean Energy Mission are in place and can therefore be addressed.
–> The Government should support the development and delivery of industry initiatives geared towards helping those individuals looking to move into a green job role or upskill, including ISEP’s Green Careers Hub.
–> The Government’s new Growth and Skills Levy must enable more flexibility in developing the apprenticeship pipeline than we saw under the previous Apprenticeship Levy, providing employers with more autonomy around how funds are spent.
–> Data collected by the Green Jobs Delivery Group on relevant skills and occupational gaps, across sectors, should be made available publicly, so that educational organisations can develop relevant courses with certainty and businesses can plan investment in their people accordingly.
–> The Government should support the development of industry initiatives aimed at transforming diversity within the environment sector and sustainability profession, including ISEP’s Diverse Sustainability Initiative.
–> Building on the work of the Green Jobs Delivery Group, the Government should establish a permanent cross-government body that takes a strategic approach to delivering green skills and jobs growth in the economy that is tied to our long-term climate and environmental goals.
–> The Government should publish a Green Jobs Plan, setting out how investment in green jobs and skills will be channelled across different economic sectors so that we have a workforce that can deliver the green economy of the future.
Ben is Director of Policy and Public Affairs at ISEP. In this capacity he looks after the delivery of ISEP's core policy, practice and public affairs activities across a range of environmental and sustainability issues. Prior to joining the organisation Ben worked in several similar policy roles at organisations including the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Renewable Energy Association.
