Skills for the circular economy: changing mindsets. Steve Bainbridge, Senior analyst, Cedefop

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1 Skills for the circular economy: changing mindsets Steve Bainbridge, Senior analyst, Cedefop

2 Why change mindsets? The EU is broadly on schedule to meet its 2020 targets. Greenhouse gas emissions in 2012 were 18% lower than in 1990 and are expected to be 24% lower by The share of renewable energy as a proportion of final energy consumed was 13% in 2012 and is forecast to reach 21% by 2020 And the energy intensity of the EU economy fell by 24% between 1995 and All achieved by current policies

3 Two main weaknesses with current policies to reach green objectives; first, the economic case for combatting climate change has still to be convincingly made; second, green targets are vulnerable and could be missed due to a lack of joined up thinking and integrated policy-making.

4 Although some see green skills as fundamental to almost every job as IT skills, from and economic and business perspective the green revolution is not like the IT revolution. The growth in technology was and is market-led. The green revolution is led by governments.

5 Green targets could be vulnerable because, as well as targets to combat climate change, the Europe 2020 strategy also proposed an employment rate target of 75% for the population aged by And we are not going to make it. To reach 75%, the EU needs to create around 14 million new jobs over the next five years.

6 Commission s 2012 employment package and Cedefop policy scenarios do not indicate an inherent conflict between higher rates of employment and reduced energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Wind energy alone is forecast to create 330,000 jobs by 2020.

7 A green economy and high employment require greater integration of climate and energy polices with measures to support employment and education and training to develop the skills needed by a low-carbon economy. Such an integration requires a change of mindset among policy-makers.

8 Moving to a low-carbon economy, is best seen not only in environmental terms, but also as a special case of economic structural change. Skill shortages constrain development of low-carbon technologies and services and hamper successful implementation of sustainable energy policies. Examples of national strategies for green skills are limited to a few Member States including France, Austria and the UK.

9 The mindset to change is that initiatives, including legislation, to promote investment in green innovation and infrastructure are separate from the skills required to deliver them. Meeting both the green and employment targets requires alignment of policies, not just across different areas, but also levels (supranational, national, regional and local). European policy-makers must ensure that support for skills and training are integral to and match the ambition of other green policies. Skill shortages constrain development of low-carbon technologies and services and hamper successful implementation of sustainable energy policies. Examples of national strategies for green skills are limited to a few Member States including France, Austria and the UK.

10 The next mindset that needs to be changed amongst business, training providers and individuals is that skills for the green economy are somehow outside economic needs, or linked to a particular jobs or sectors.

11 Cedefop s definition of green skills refers to the knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes needed to live in, develop and support a society, which reduces the impact of human activity on the environment. Green awareness from an early age seems critical to develop a low-carbon economy. But there are no clear boundaries between new green occupations and existing occupations. Topping up and improving existing skills is at least as important as developing new green skills.

12 Examples of upskilling to new occupations

13 Adaptation of curricular and integrating sustainable development and environmental awareness in education and training systems is more feasible and effective than creating new training programmes. In most cases green skills were not included in the learning strategies of training providers. Significant skill gap in management and technical jobs which are related to the sectors covering Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

14 Although the nature of the green skills revolution is different from that of the IT revolution, generic green skills and as appropriate to the job specific green skills need to be as ubiquitous in education and training curricula as IT literacy. And because updating people s skills is essential to develop the green economy, this is as important for continuing training and lifelong learning for adults as it is for initial training of young people.

15 Measures to improve vocational education and training are to help people find jobs, but are equally important to the transition to green a green economy. With greater environmental awareness and more information on green skills trainers and teachers, training providers and guidance counsellors can all play an important role in developing the green economy.

16 Green economic and employment growth are impeded by skill shortages and problematic policy coordination across different areas. Many existing occupations will require reskilling or up-skilling of employees and job-seekers, To meet these challenges we need a change of mindset and more joined up thinking to produce integrated policies that support the complementarity of the EU s targets for combatting climate change and for combatting unemployment.

17 Thank you More information from See also from Cedefop: Skills for green jobs (published in 2010); Green skills and environmental awareness in VET (2012); Skills for a low carbon Europe: the role of VET in a sustainable energy scenario (2013).