Green skills for a better tomorrow
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Last week, the CIWM called on the UK government to provide additional support to address the current skills and labour shortage in the waste and resources sector, and the skills and competencies needed to drive a transition over the next five years to a more circular economy, one that is resource efficient, low carbon and green.
Even though the sector has the real potential to create an additional 240,000 new roles by 2040, on top of the 135,000 already employed in our sector, it fails to attract the necessary talent due to societal perceptions of working with “waste”. It is often considered an unattractive career option, one that is end of pipe, dirty, smelly, and manual, but this really couldn’t be further from the truth as the sector continue to evolve around clean material streams, new technologies and emerging business models. There is also a lack of understanding concerning what the sector is already delivering in terms of breadth of roles available, the new career paths that are opening up and the huge economic, environmental, and social benefits that are being enabled across the value chain. It is clearly time to change the narrative and to rethink our recruitment activities before the sector is left behind in the drive towards green careers.
The UK has the potential workforce needed to deliver a green industrial revolution but to achieve this change over the next 15 years, we need to fully understand all the key roles, skills and knowledge required for the journey, whilst improving the attractiveness of our sector. And these are the key themes that will be addressed in this SUEZ hosted webinar.
Join our experts, representing the research team at CIWM, the sector’s representative on the Government’s Green Jobs Delivery Group, and representatives of organisations already pushing ahead on upskilling and reskilling their workforces, as they share views on what our sector will look like come 2040, and what the new demands will be in terms of skills and competencies. We’ll hear about which roles will be most important for the transition and what we can all do to upskill ourselves and our organisation’s whilst supporting the sector’s rapid and impending transition.
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Speakers
- Sarahjane Widdowson, Director, Intelisos
- Katie Cockburn, Professional Services Director, CIWM
- Fiona Dear, Co-Director, The Restart Project
- Claire Townsend, Resourcing Manager, SUEZ
- Dr Adam Read, Chief External Affairs and Sustainability Officer, SUEZ
- Watch the recording
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Associated events