New qualifications for a greener workforce

Awarding body City & Guilds has entered into a new partnership to launch a set of qualifications designed to give businesses a greener workforce.

The group has teamed up with the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), the business voice for the environment, to create three training courses.

Two result in formal qualifications – one aimed at all staff up to manager level within an organisation, the other at management level. The third course is a strategy session that is tailoured for senior executives.

The courses draw upon the expertise of IEMA’s 15,000 environmental professionals. They come as research shows UK businesses could save £55 billion a year through energy and resource efficiency savings by employing environment practitioners and having a green workforce.

IEMA chief executive Tim Balcon said: “For the UK economy to compete globally, and maximise the business opportunities that the environment presents, we need to be bold – we need to comprehensively upskill all parts of the economy.

“The key to this is through quality standards of environmental skills and knowledge delivered at consistently high quality and at volume throughout organisations.

“Someone needed to take the bull by the horns on this issue, and that’s where we’ve delivered.  For the first time, every business will not only have access to skilled and qualified environment professionals who lead and improve on environmental performance, but also have the opportunity to truly embed environmental skills across every role and responsibility across their organisation.”

Natalie Thornhill