Celebrated between 6th - 11th November 2023, Green Careers Week is the chance to raise awareness and showcase the opportunities that young people can find in sustainability. At Earthwatch Education, we care deeply about inclusive pathways to green careers - from equipping teachers to confidently discuss sustainable living, creating platforms for students to raise their voices about their concerns and solutions for the planet, to enabling young people to imagine, find and pursue their own green careers.
The UK’s Green Jobs Taskforce and the Green Alliance describe green careers as those that “directly or indirectly contribute to reaching climate and environmental goals”. There is a variety of climate and environmental goals, such as preventing the global annual temperature from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times, protecting 30% of the planet for nature and biodiversity by 2030, securing 30% of the international waters as protected areas, and so on.
It is important to highlight that green careers ‘directly or indirectly’ support the sustainability of life on Earth. As the Independent Green Jobs Taskforce reported in 2021, “every UK job has the potential to be green”. By exploring every industry and role and identifying processes based on consumerist, single-use or exploitative practices, we can create pathways to a circular economy and sustainable living. As Green Alliance suggests, “doctors will need to understand how to reduce waste on hospital wards, auditors should understand the emissions implications of investments and shop owners should be able to successfully identify sustainable products”.
Green skills are described as the competencies that workers need to deliver impact in all the areas mentioned above, as described by the Green Alliance.
Sometimes people might hold the misconception that STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) technical skills are the only necessary building blocks for green careers, but there are other competencies that round out green skills.
Namely people skills (communication, problem-solving and decision-making) and ‘transformative capacities’ (or systemic change skills needed to address underlying issues, such as political agency, organising collective action and disruptive thinking) are the other crucial elements in equipping young people with green skills, as described by Plan International.
Together STEM skills, people skills and systemic change skills create flexible, resilient, solution-focused thinkers and agents of change, opening green careers as an option for many more applicants, taking us beyond the traditional images of solar panel engineers or conservationists that many people might be drawn to when thinking of jobs with sustainability at the heart.
Over two-thirds (68%) of kids hope to have a career that helps the environment, but 71% of them say they do not know enough about eco-friendly careers.
Around a quarter (27%) of working adults in Great Britain reported in May 2023 that they would describe any part of their job as a "green job", while around 1 in 20 (4%) reported that all or most of their job relates to "green" activities.
The hiring demand for green roles has increased 87% between 2019 and 2023.
90% of employees believe that their employer has a responsibility to help the environment.
Between February 2022 and February 2023, LinkedIn job postings requiring at least one green skill have grown by a median of 15.2% and are growing nearly twice as fast as green talent in the workforce.
Data suggests that green skills, and the jobs that require them, are especially resilient during times of economic uncertainty.
The challenge to teach, practise and integrate green skills in careers can seem daunting. We will not reach 100% supply in green careers overnight; we need to take small and consistent steps in the right direction, taking imperfect action rather than stalling the process. The case studies below highlight the variety of actions that professionals across all industries can take to embed green skills and sustainability into their roles.
Find out more about what careers at Earthwatch look like, and how you can be part of environmental research projects like Tiny Forest in a variety of roles.
Green Careers Week 2023 - Official Website
Green Careers Week 2023 - Participating Organisations
'How to get a green job' by Friends of the Earth
'Why employers need to support green career paths' by the E+T Magazine
Green Careers Profiles by My World Of Work