NEW Release - Global Guidance for Education on Green Jobs: Connecting Higher Education and Green Opportunities for Planetary Health (also available in Spanish, Chinese). This document was developed through collaborative efforts of the United Nations Environment Programme and the US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development, with input from staff at multiple UN agencies and the World Bank.
This UNEP-YEA Green Jobs initiative focuses on improving education for green careers and job placement processes for educators and employers. It supports an emerging international trend in curricula, research, career advising and job placement to build the workforce we need for a sustainable and inclusive future. It also supports the fulfillment of national climate commitments. To be informed of initiative events, additional resources, and other opportunities, please fill out this form. This initiative consists of a top down effort via UNEP-YEA's Alliance, relevant ministries and higher education networks for sustainability as well as a bottom up effort via Action for Climate Empowerment Focal Points for multiple countries, youth engagement, plus collaborations with employers and career advisors. Activities include a virtual support community for implementation, short handouts on key recommended actions, plus more.
The primary audience for this initiative is the higher education community and employers in the green economy. However, governments, NGOs, and youth organizations will find this document and support activities below very useful. The Global Guidance document includes key actions for educators to prepare students to participate in the just transition to a green and more inclusive economy, including content on knowledge enhancement, skills and competency development, and job opportunities.
Outcomes of this initiative are increased awareness of:
- The growth of green jobs
- How to bring a green lens to any job/organization
- Green jobs pathways (e.g. skills/educational/career pathways)
- How students can get involved with green opportunities today (e.g. ways to include applied, real world projects in curricula as a high impact learning practice for undergraduate and Masters projects, and MA/MS/ PhD practical theses).
- The need to include environmental and social sustainable development knowledge and skills in all majors so students become educated employees or employers, consumers, community members, and investors.
This initiative also creates stronger pathways for improved processes between SDG practitioners, employers in the green economy, and the education institutions to:
- Bring a green lens to all professions
- Increase job placement of students
- Improve quality of curricula to meet career pathway and employer needs
- Connect students to practitioners for applied projects/research
- Enhance green entrepreneurship
Accompanying support activities include:
A series of events on how to utilize the document with interactions from the educator, employer, government, and student communities internationally.
A virtual support community for educators and employers to improve the processes for input regarding employers’ needs for curricular updates and job placement. Virtual meetings will highlight sharing successes, solutions to barriers, expert input and interactive discussion and additional resources. Open to all, the support community will include higher education networks for sustainability, employers in the green economy, and curricular decision makers in multiple countries.
Special events and interactive discussions on updating career guidance for faculty and career centers on campus and serving present students and alumni.
Materials for students and faculty on how to become a changemaker with the skills and mindset to create the scale of systems change needed for a sustainable future.
To be informed of events, support activities and additional resources, please fill out this form.
Here is a podcast describing the initiative.
EVENTS:
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PAST EVENTS
Getting the Skilled Employees You Need: Building the Clean Energy Workforce (Wednesday 23 February 2022 - 14:00 - 15:30 CET)
REN21 and the UNEP-YEA Green Jobs Initiative have partnered to host a RENdez-vous event around the topic of workforce development for the clean energy sector. In this interactive event, companies can share their workforce challenges, including skills gaps, suggestions for curricular updates, and employee recruitment and job placement challenges. The initiative will use this input to improve how universities, technical educators, and trainers interact with clean energy companies.
Attend to save your company time and effort while improving your access to skilled employees.
Recording here.
Connecting Higher Education and the Green Economy Community (15th February 2022 - 14:00 - 15:30 CET)
All educators and researchers have a unique and important role to help create a sustainable future. Scientists have declared Code Red regarding climate change impacts. Students need updated knowledge and skills for climate solutions and other environmental challenges that will lead to a more sustainable economy. Each person in higher education has a contribution to make. In this interactive event, participants will receive insights from the global guidance document on this topic with accompanying resources about how to improve curricula, internships, career guidance and job placements. REGISTER HERE. This event is brought to you by the International Association of Universities in partnership with UNEP-YEA’s Green Jobs initiative. You are also invited to join the international community of educators, curricular decision makers and green economy employers supporting each other virtually on these issues.
Recording here.
Education for the Energy Transition: Approaches, Resources and Next Steps (30 June 2021)
We urgently have to scale up both the workforce and awareness needed for a clean energy transition. This requires bold efforts in education and workforce training to produce a new generation of energy professionals, reskill the current workforce and create informed consumers.
This interactive event, sponsored by the Green Learning Network, the International Renewable Energy Agency, REN21 and UNEP’s Youth and Education Alliance, brought together panellists at the forefront of renewable energy education and training to share innovative approaches to skill building and aimed at anyone interested in building a more sustainable future.
We explored both challenges and solutions in areas such as adapting curricula to meet emerging knowledge and skills requirements; the role of educators across all levels and disciplines in helping students understand the opportunities and massive growth in clean energy careers; and systemic reform needs. The session included discussion of resources, successful examples, solutions and sharing mechanisms during this interactive session.
- Event page (You will find links to the event recording, the resource guide, a form to submit additional resources, and an online community dedicated to this topic.)
UNEP-World Bank webinar on sustainable energy jobs – connecting businesses and education (25 February 2021)
This event was designed to help employers and educators connect to prepare the workforce for the green economy, bringing business associations in clean energy and higher education professionals together. The clean energy transition is creating new job opportunities around the world. With the rapid expansion of renewables and energy efficiency, along with technology disruptions, the needed skill sets of tomorrow’s workforce are going to be significantly different. Speakers and participants discussed how the private sector can connect with educational and training institutions to prepare the workforce for clean energy and the green economy.
UNEP-IRENA-Green Learning Network (GGKP) webinar on changing curricula (11 February 2021)
This event showcased successful precedents and key resources. It offered a facilitated discussion about how to shift curricula to include education for sustainable development. Participants were predominantly from higher education while anyone interested in how to change curricula was welcome to participate. The event highlighted success stories, quality strategies, challenges and solutions.
- Event page
- Recording
- Resource guide shared during the webinar
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