07 Mar Launching new research into green jobs and skills across West London
Building on the London-level research published in October 2021, the West London Alliance has now launched a report on green jobs and skills in West London.
The report details the green jobs and skills across West London boroughs today, and takes a forward look to provide projections for both 2030 and 2050. It also makes recommendations to help ensure our communities benefit from these jobs and acquire the skills needed to do so.
Read the Full Report or Summary Slides
Recommendations for action include:
• The need for long term policy certainty and clarity from government.
• An opportunity for employers, sector bodies and skills providers to tailor skills provision to respond to need, including reskilling.
• The importance of careers information, advice and guidance in relation to emerging green jobs and skills pathways into those jobs.
• Use of a consistent framework to measure the growth of the green economy to identify more accurately the challenges in meeting skills needs.
Green jobs today
Taking the definition of green jobs established in the London-level research as being jobs that facilitate meeting net zero and broader environmental goals, there were an estimated 31,600 green jobs in West London in 2020, 3.7% of total employment. This represents 1 in 7 green jobs in the capital. The most prominent green sectors in West London, in line with the wider picture across the capital, are Power and Homes and Buildings, accounting for almost 8 in 10 of the sub-region’s green jobs. Workers in green jobs in West London are predominantly in higher level managerial, professional and associate professional occupations (64%), but skilled craft manual workers (e.g. electricians and plumbers) are over-represented in green jobs in West London in comparison with the whole of London.
Green skills today
Looking at the current picture for green skills, around three fifths (59%) of West London residents in green jobs have degrees (above the proportion of graduates in all jobs in West London of 52%, and the proportion of graduates in green jobs across the UK as a whole of 38%), with significant sectoral variation (ranging from above three quarters in power, consultancy and finance to one quarter in homes and building and reuse, reduce and recycle sectors). There are around 9,000 learners in FE (19+) and in apprenticeships (all ages) in relevant subject areas to green jobs. These represent nearly 30% of the current green workforce, higher than the level across the whole of London (18%), indicating a relatively large education and training pipeline at further education level within West London.
Projections for the future
Taking a look at the future, although projections vary considerably depending on the pace of the move towards net zero and policy/legislation influencing that, the total number of green jobs in the central scenario is projected to rise from 32,000 in 2020 to 64,000 in 2030 – a doubling of the green economy workforce over a decade – and 122,000 in 2050, representing a near-4-fold increase. In addition to the jobs that will be created by the transition to net zero, there will be many jobs lost in carbon intensive industries. We identify 117,000 jobs are in carbon intensive industries and therefore at highest risk of change, mostly in Construction, Aviation and Land transport, representing a higher percentage of the total workforce than the rest of the UK and London economies. However, we estimate there will be a small positive impact on overall employment in West London due to the shift to net zero, with an increase of around 10,200 jobs in 2030 and around 3,700 jobs in 2050.
Read the Full Report or Summary Slides