Green Skills / Sustainability

Completed

Skills for Sustainability (2007 & 2009)
Green Skills – Demonstration Projects (2010)
Skill for Green Jobs - ILO Research Study (2009)
Green Skills NSW Summit (2009)
Sustainable Water Management (2005)

Skills for Sustainability (2007 & 2009)

The Board commissioned research to investigate skills for sustainable business development in NSW and to understand the impact of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions which poses a serious long term threat to the economic and physical wellbeing of all societies. Given the significance of this threat, the global response to climate change will be one of the most important drivers of economic changes during this century.
The first edition of Skills for Sustainability report was published in 2007 and the second edition in 2009. The reports emphasise the importance of skills in achieving environmental sustainability and identify gaps and opportunities in sustainability training in NSW. The groundbreaking reports have led to improved understanding and innovative thinking about environmental skills training and policy developments. The Board is leading the way within NSW and nationally in relation to green skills.

Reports

For further information about the Skills for Sustainability project, please contact Kathy Esson on (02) 9561 8789 or email kathy.esson@det.nsw.edu.au

Green Skills – Demonstration Projects

In 2006, the Board initiated a research study on Skills for Sustainability to understand the skills policy responses required to address climate change. The research, completed in 2007 made a series of recommendations including developing skills for green jobs, incorporating green skills into the course curricula and other policy settings.
The Board initiated the second stage of the project in which the Green Skills NSW Business Guide and Green Skills Strategy Implementation Plan were developed and this included a number of demonstration projects.

The dynamic web-based business guide became available in June 2009, informing employers about the business case for green business practice and providing information about green skills training and training assistance. The website can be viewed at http://greenskills.nsw.gov.au/.

The following six demonstration projects are at various stages of implementation:

GreenGoods: run by Byron Region Community College.
Green Thumbs: run by Byron Region Community College.
Environmental Awareness in Transport and Logistics: run by the Automotive Training Board NSW/the Transport and Logistics Industry Skills Council.
Leave the Car at Home: run by ACE Western NSW / Dubbo.
EnviroSales: run by TAFE Northern Sydney Institute.
Green Skills for Emerging Markets: run through Central West Group Apprentices.

For further information about the Green Skills Demonstration projects, please contact Kathy Esson on (02) 9561 8789 or email kathy.esson@det.nsw.edu.au

Skills for Green Jobs - ILO Research Study (2009)

The research project Skills for Green Jobs was initiated by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and cosponsored by BVET, the Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, the Queensland Government, the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development, Victoria, and the Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria. The focus of this research project was to understand the skills needs of greener economies, changing occupational profiles, greening existing occupations, and identifying skills and occupations that will become obsolete. The project, carried out by the Workplace Relations Centre (WRC), University of Sydney, highlighted the key challenges and priorities for climate change mitigation and adaptation for the Australian economy. The report presents information and data on the following key areas:

broad statistics on commercial and residential energy consumption and carbon emissions in Australia;
climate change policies of Commonwealth and State Governments including the current environmental sustainability agenda;
green skills responses to economic crises including the key initiatives of Commonwealth and State Governments.
the current sustainability skills gaps in training packages and guiding principles underpinning all VET activity in skills for sustainability;
the models used to identify skills needs for climate change abatement at industry and State level including case studies on retraining needs;
the current status of new and changing skills needs for greening existing industries and occupations in Australia, and skill responses in terms of policy changes by State Governments and industry including a number of case studies.

The Research concludes that in order to generate a carbon constrained economy, Australia will have to sustain high adjustment costs and will face significant repercussions on emissions-intensive, trade-exposed industries as well as newly emerging industries such as solar energy installation. The report finds that a key driver across all industries affected by the rise of the green economy will be regulatory and policy settings, and that these will determine the demand for green skills. It notes that to date, the supply of green skills has been fragmented along State and institutional lines, although recent holistic government policy frameworks will alter this.

Reports

Final Report

For more information about the Skills for Green Jobs Project, contact Kathy Esson on (02) 9561 8789 or email kathy.esson@det.nsw.edu.au

NSW Green Skills Summit (2009)

The NSW Green Skills Summit, sponsored by BVET, took place as part of the Jobs Summit initiated by the NSW Premier in February 2009. The Summit was attended by some of the State’s leading education and training representatives, key business and community leaders, environmental groups, sustainability advisers, apprentices and green-skilled workers. Bert Evans, Chairman of the Board, introduced the proceedings for the Green Skills Summit, and Board member Ben Bardon was selected to be on the panel of experts for the Summit.
Speaking at the Summit, NSW Premier Nathan Rees announced new plans to make it easier to establish clean, renewable energy projects, in a major step to attract green investment and create green jobs in NSW. “The expansion of the Commonwealth’s Renewable Energy Target to 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity supply by 2020 will drive major new investment in the generation of renewable energy.” said Mr. Rees.
The Premier indicated that there are abundant natural resources to generate wind, solar and hydro energy and that NSW is well placed to drive investment in a sustainable, renewable energy future and to drive investment in green jobs.
As an outcome of the Summit, green skills business vouchers to encourage the upskilling of workers in green skills were announced, and a Green Skills NSW Taskforce was established to turn the ideas and proposals raised at the Summit into a plan of action to support a future green economy in New South Wales
The Taskforce met a number of times after the Summit and considered the details, priorities and implementation arrangements for green skills initiatives already proposed or planned, together with further measures which could:

increase the demand for green jobs and green skills
enhance the provision of green skills training and the capacity of education and training institutions to deliver training
improve information on green jobs, green skills and related training resources.

The Taskforce undertook a stocktake of measures across governments and the economy that targeted increased sustainability and energy efficiencies in business and industry. It considered the demand for jobs that would be stimulated by these initiatives and the skills needed by the NSW workforce to ensure successful implementation of environmental measures and success in the transition to the green economy.
The key recommendations of Taskforce are:

Promote the growth of green industries and green jobs;
Support small business to adopt sustainability measures and to develop their workforce capability;
Prioritise training in environmental sustainability including a target of 5 per cent of publicly funded training places to be reached by 2013; and
Encourage young people to engage with sustainable future training and employment opportunities

For further information about the NSW Green Skills Summit, please contact Kathy Esson on (02) 9561 8789 or email kathy.esson@det.nsw.edu.au

Sustainable Water Management (2005)

The Board funded this project to demonstrate how VET providers can collaborate with Co-operative Research Centres (CRCs) to increase innovation in firms/networks and to commercialise and defuse innovations that increase the demand for and use of skills.

This project was an additional demonstration project associated with the BVET/ANTA Skill Ecosystem national project. TAFE NSW - Riverina Insititute lead this project to improve sustainable water management practice in the Albury-Wodonga region. The project promoted increased use of constructed wetland technology in residential, commercial and industrial developments. Constructed wetlands are a biological alternative to chemical or engineered treatment of waste water. The project brought together land developers, regulators, end-users and innovators to generate awareness, knowledge and skills in sustainable water management practice in the region, where increasing constraints on water availability were being experienced.

In addition to developing project-specific outcomes relating to constructed wetlands and sustainable water management practice, this project also served to test and develop the role of vocational education and training (VET) providers as ‘innovation agents’ engaged in the creation, diffusion and commercialisation of new knowledge and skills.

For more information about the Sustainable Water Management Project, contact Kathy Esson on (02) 9561 8789 or email kathy.esson@det.nsw.edu.au