Our sustainability commitment
Supporting the green industrial revolution
It is essential that the UK develops the right skills to achieve the UK’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
We are playing our part in making sure that apprenticeships and technical education help achieve these targets.
Green apprenticeships
Green apprenticeships give our workforce the skills needed to help to slow down the effects of climate change.
All apprenticeships are affected by sustainability but in different ways.
Green apprenticeships advisory panel
The green apprenticeships advisory panel (GAAP) will be made up of employers, supported by other key voices in this area. This will focus our efforts and make sure the right skills are in place for the future workforce to deliver the green technology shift the UK needs.
We aim to do this by enhancing our current apprenticeships to ensure that they meet the needs of the employers within the growing green economy. We will also look at creating new apprenticeships to reflect new occupations to meet the challenge to reach net carbon zero. The GAAP have worked alongside the Green Jobs Taskforce created by BEIS to support the drive for 2 million new green jobs by 2030.
The GAAP have identified the first 44 existing apprenticeships that best support green career pathways.
If you are interested in joining the panel, please contact: Institute.Sustainability-Team@education.gov.uk
You can also listen to The Insitute talks podcast about green apprenticeships. Within the podcast, Judy Ling Wong (Chair of the GAAP) talks more about the panel and how green apprenticeships can help achieve net-zero carbon emissions.
Sustainability framework
The sustainability framework sets out the key themes for all employers to consider, no matter what sector they are in. This is a helpful guide, to ensure employers can consider how every apprenticeship can contribute to climate change goals.
This framework will help our trailblazer groups and route panels to consider ‘sustainability’ in educating the future workforce. It is recognised that for organisations to remain operational in the longer term, they need to adapt to become more socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.
Sustainable development achieves value for money, generating benefits not only to the organisation but also to society while minimising damage to the environment now and in the future.
Our organisation
A brief summary of our plans to be a more sustainable organisation is below and more detail is set out in our environmental policy. We will:
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reduce our resource consumption and carbon emissions heading towards net zero by 2050
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ensure that our apprenticeship and technical products include sustainability in their knowledge, skills, and behaviours
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keep paper consumption to a minimum through digital working and manage the need to travel to/between offices by hybrid working
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use public transport as the first option for travel and manage the use of vehicle hire to minimise carbon emissions where possible
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continue to include social value in 100% of our procurements.