Meet Your Future: Green Careers Week
In this Meet Your Future article, we’re going to be talking all things green careers. This is all part of our celebration of Green Careers Week – which is happening this week from the 7th to 11th of November.
Green Careers Week is all about the skills, knowledge and jobs that make up the workforce of the future. We know that environmental and green jobs are going to become massively more important as we try to meet our climate action goals as a society. In this article, we’ll introduce you to some of these careers. Did you know they are huge growth areas of the economy?
One thing you may not know is that a lot of other jobs that we don’t currently think of as being green are likely to actually become green careers. For example, as getting solar panels and insulation installed becomes more and more important, some existing jobs will become a vital part of the response to climate change. Lots of jobs in the electrical or construction sector are already fast becoming vital green careers.
So, read on to find out more about what’s going on for Green Careers Week across Greater Manchester, and get some important info about the green skills and jobs that could be a crucial part of your future career. For more info and to stay up-to-date with GMACS, follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
Learn more about the green economy
The green economy is a relatively new sector for the country’s labour market. So you may not be aware that it’s growing rapidly – and you might not know what kinds of jobs it includes.
To help, we’ve created an infographic with all the information you need, including up-to-date Labour Market Information (LMI). This includes things like the average salary, top employers in Greater Manchester, and the kinds of jobs that are part of the new green economy.
Did you know that nearly 60,000 people are already employed in the green sector in GM? That’s around 4.6% of the workforce. Click below for even more facts and insight.
Careers Task: Look over the infographic. Does any of the information surprise you? Think about the job roles that are listed as in demand – do any of them sound like something you might be interested in? What about the qualifications and routes to entry – are you considering any of these courses? Finally, look at the section about the future. Nobody can predict the future, but think about what kinds of changes to the economy and careers some of these future trends might involve. What kinds of new jobs might be needed?
For more information on the green sector in Greater Manchester, look over the sector page on GMACS. We’ve created this page with lots of general information about the green sector, as well as some info on the kinds of jobs that are part of this area. Check it out below and find out a bit more about the green sector.
Careers Task: Look at the popular jobs section of the sector page. Do any of the jobs match something you might be interested in? Think about the kinds of skills involved for each one. Do you have any of these skills already, or are you learning to get them?
Find out more about climate change
Of course, coupled with info on the green sector itself, it’s also important to understand the wider picture of climate change and how we’re taking action. Climate change is a massive issue facing everybody, and there are lots of resources you can find online about climate action in general. If you don’t know, here are a few things you could look up online to find out about:
- “Net zero” emissions targets
- Decarbonisation
- Climate justice
- Climate migration
- UN Climate Change Conference (COP27)
- Green technology
Careers Task: Research any of these topics that you don’t know about or that you find interesting. What kind of careers skills will be important to jobs in these areas? For example, when it comes to climate justice, we might need lawyers or economists to assess the harm caused by climate change and figure out if anyone could have done more to help.
How is Greater Manchester working on green careers?
In Greater Manchester, we have set our own targets for becoming a net zero economy by 2038 – this is significantly ahead of national targets for zero emissions. There are lots of ways that this is being worked on and lots of plans in place for how to achieve this. You can find out more about this on some different places online.
GM Green City
The GM Green City website is a great place to find out about Greater Manchester’s climate strategy, with info on all of the individual, community, educational and industrial work that’s taking place.
GMCA environment page
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority website has an environment page that contains all the details about the environmental strategy for GM. There’s lots of info here, and some of it is quite technical, but it’s a good place to start for researching the GM green strategy.
Careers Task: Research the Greater Manchester strategy for dealing with climate change. Is there more you could be doing individually to help? What about with your career – do you have any skills already that you think could help the GM region meet this strategy?
Watch videos from Green Industry Skills Fairs
Over the past 2 years, the Meet Your Future series has run events and webinars for the Green Industry Skills Fair. Watch these videos to meet employers in the green industry and find out more about how their sector is changing and developing.
There are 2 playlists, one for the events that happened in 2021 and one for the events earlier this year. In these videos, you can watch an interview with Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, meet employers in the construction, sustainability, energy and social action sectors, and hear lots about what the future might look like.
Careers Task: Find a video about a sector that you’re interested in. Watch the interview with the employer and think about what they’re saying about their industry. Have they always been considered a green job, or have they transitioned to the green sector? What do they say about future trends?
Meet real people working in GM
We asked some real people working in a range of sectors across Greater Manchester questions about what they do and what advice they’d give young people. Check out two of these videos below to meet people working in green careers.
These videos were produced in partnership with Digital Advantage.
Meet Andy Atwood, a Sales Director for a logistics company. Watch this video to find out a bit more about how his company has had to adapt to meet the needs of new technology.
Careers Task: Click here to watch the video careers task from Andy. In the video, he talks about how to research new companies to make his business grow – think about how best to do this sustainably. Should you avoid certain industries? How do we make sure logistics businesses grow in a green and eco-friendly way?
Meet Owen Davies, a Design Engineer who works for a company who make motorbikes. In the video, Owen talks about the changing technology in the transport industry and how his company will have to adapt to it.
Careers Task: Watch this video to see Owen’s career task for you. He asks you to do some research into electric scooters – have a look and research what’s on the market for this sustainable new form of transport?
Green Careers Week in your local area
As well as all of the GM-wide activities going on for Green Careers Week, there are also lots of things happening in your local area. We’ve linked to a few of these below, but for more info check out the website and social media pages for your local council.
Stockport
The Stockport Jobs Match website has tons of information for you to explore all about green careers and the green sector.
Manchester
Check out the Manchester City Council’s Work and Skills Twitter page for details of everything they’ve got on for Green Careers Week.
Careers Task: Research green jobs in your local area. Look at your council’s website to see what plans are in place already for climate action. How could you get involved, both now and in the future?
