Consultation on meeting the low carbon skills challenge

This consultation is closed. BIS and DECC are currently considering replies to the consultation and a summary of the responses will follow in due course.

As set out in New Industry, New Jobs, the Government is committed to ensuring that British citizens and businesses are equipped to take advantage of the changes happening as a result of the low carbon transition, and prosper in an increasingly competitive global age.

The shift to low carbon described in the Low Carbon Transition Plan will revolutionise the way in which we all live and work. Britain needs to be ready to meet that challenge, but also to secure a share of the skilled jobs and global trade it will create.

In our Low Carbon Industrial Strategy, we set out the scale of the opportunities available across global supply chains and launched Government action to help British businesses seize them. Most importantly, we need people with the right knowledge and skills to research, produce and use those technologies and solutions that can make Britain’s global low carbon ambitions a reality.

This consultation sets out the Government’s key skills priorities, and the challenges which must be met if we are successfully to:

• Enable British workers and businesses to take advantage of the opportunities in those sectors that are key to reducing our carbon emissions;
• Embed the necessary skills across all sectors to move the UK to a low carbon and resource efficient economy.

The Government recognises that there is a great deal of activity taking place locally, regionally and nationally to provide the necessary skills and knowledge to support new career opportunities. But we also recognise that further effort will be required if we are to realise the full potential of these activities, and we ask for views from stakeholders on what the strategic skills priorities and next steps should be.

• Meeting the low carbon skills challenge: a consultation on equipping people with the skills to take advantage of opportunities in the low carbon and resource efficient economy (PDF, 924 Kb)