Peers have long called for a national plan to deliver the skills we urgently need for the green economy – and secure a once in a generation opportunity to deliver inclusive growth and opportunity across the country.
Last week, P4P Peers secured changes that will support these ambitions by ensuring the delivery of our climate and nature targets are placed firmly within Skills England’s remit and priorities, a new body tasked with driving the nations skills strategy.
Through an amendment to the IfATE Bill which will put in place legislative changes to pave the way for setting up Skills England, P4P Director, Lord Ravensdale, pressed the need to ensure the new body will provide strategic direction to deliver the green skills we will need to achieve our climate, environmental and adaptation targets.
Following discussions with the government, it was agreed that Skill’s England’s Framework Document – which sets out its priorities and relationship to government – will include a specific objective to develop green skills and a strategic aim to ensure future skills provision contributes to the development of the Industrial Strategy and the government’s missions, including making Britain a clean energy superpower.
These important changes will give a clear direction to Skills England as it develops its strategic priorities and work plan as a new body. It will provide the clarity that it needs to ensure we have a skills pipeline that can meet the increasing demand for jobs across a rapidly expanding nature-positive and net zero economy - and crucially, drive a fairer transition by re-skilling workers switching from high-carbon sector roles to the skilled jobs of the future.
“Many Peers have been pressing for a long time to put in place a national strategy for responding to these skills needs…We all welcomed the formation of Skills England to begin plugging those gaps. I am very grateful to the Minister and her team for their collaborative approach in response to this amendment, which we raised in Committee, to include the delivery of our climate and nature targets within Skills England’s remit. Having this in the framework document for Skills England, given the constraints of the legislation, will ensure that this national strategic goal is woven into Skills England’s approach and that the good work already going on at local level through the LSIPs can be knitted together”. Lord Ravensdale, Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (Transfer of Functions etc) Bill – Report Stage, 05 February 2025
These changes build on earlier work of P4P Peers in the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022, which introduced a climate and nature duty for Local Skills Improvement Plans – the first of its kind in the skills framework.
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