Green Skills Training to Tackle Decarbonisation
Following the UK government’s announcement that the Green Homes Grant has been scrapped, Ashden, a climate solutions charity, is calling for green skills training to be carried out to help tackle decarbonisation.
Despite this impact, the government still has a chance to act and create thousands of green jobs locally around the UK.
“There is a massive opportunity for the government to fill these capacity gaps, create thousands of new jobs, and build back better– by launching a green workforce of newly trained and re-trained tradespeople,” said Harriet Lamb, CEO at Ashden.
Installing external insulation could radically cut carbon from the UK’s housing stock. C. Energiesprong
For the UK to achieve zero carbon by 2050 its imperative politicians commit to a long-term tailored investment in green skills. The consequences if this is not met, could mean an unstable future for many workers, not being able to meet the demands of tomorrow’s job market.
Ashden published a report on Green skills: training UK workers for tomorrow’s job market, following a consultation they conducted in Autumn 2020.
With 20 experts across the low carbon heat and retrofit sector, the consultation confirmed that funding for green skills training is too low, too short-term, and not local enough.
Harriet pushes the urgency for politicians to turn this around stating, “The government has legal commitments to meet zero carbon – this is not a choice.” She then goes on to say how the lack of commitment for providing grants making homes more energy-efficient undermines confidence within the industry.
The government has legal commitments to meet zero carbon – this is not a choice
Taking into consideration the UK’s current capacity to retrofit homes and install heat pumps, there would need to be significant improvements for the UK to achieve net-zero by 2050.
The Government expects 600,000 heat pumps to be installed each year by 2028. However, for this to be reached there would be a need for rapid re-training of workers.
This opportunity for the government to provide long term and consistent investment will build demand for trainee job opportunities in retrofit and low-carbon heat.
Many innovators around the UK are already offering practical ways into the sector. Examples of this include, Retrofit Academy, Carbon Co-op and Warmworks.
