Green Skills: What Are They and Why Are They Key to the Market?
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Green Skills: What Are They and Why Are They Key to the Market?

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Anamary Olivas By Anamary Olivas | Journalist & Industry Analyst - Wed, 08/24/2022 - 20:56

The number of jobs that combat climate change has grown in recent years, but not at the rate required to stave off drastic change, experts argue. It is necessary to create more ecological industries and, above all, train more workers with the skills to perform in them. Green skills are therefore now paramount for companies.

 

LinkedIn defines green skills as those that make  the "environmental sustainability of economic activities" possible. Green jobs therefore require extensive knowledge of green skills. Job offers that require these types of abilities saw an annual growth of 8 percent in the past five years, according to the LinkedIn's 2022 Global Green Skills Report. But talent with that knowledge has only grown about 6 percent a year in the same period. To stop global warming it is also necessary to invest in the development of human capital with green skills.

 

In recent years, many industries have modified their production processes to make them less harmful to the environment. Other jobs have sprung up specifically to stop global warming. By the next decade, there will be millions of new jobs around the world driven by new climate policies and commitments, said LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky. However, human capital might not be enough to meet climate goals, according to the famous labor platform. Among the many mitigation measures that have been neglected, the development of green skills in the labor market is one.

 

 

Even though the same report highlights the growth of green jobs, they barely represented 10 percent of hires in 2021, while non-green jobs dominated with 50 percent. The five fastest growing green jobs between 2016 and 2021, in terms of annual growth, are sustainability management with 30 percent, repair and maintenance of wind turbines with 24 percent, solar consultant with 23 percent, ecologist with 22 percent and environmental health and safety specialist with 20 percent.

 

According to the LinkedIn report, people who work in agriculture, corporate services, design, energy, mining and public administration posses above-average green skills. In these sectors, for every 100 workers who transition to non-green jobs, up to 256 workers transition to green jobs. Those who work in the arts, consumer goods, entertainment, finance, health care, law, media and communications, real estate, recreation and travel, retail, IT services, transportation and wellness have below-average green skills rates.

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