City & Guilds launches partnership with The Green Edge 

City & Guilds is partnering with sustainable business analysts, The Green Edge, to produce a bespoke podcast series, designed to help the organisation respond to the latest developments in green skills markets. The move comes shortly after the release of ‘Bright Futures: Decarbonising the UK’s Energy Workforce, a City & Guilds report placing a spotlight on decarbonising the energy workforce.  

The new partnership will help City & Guilds focus on relevant training solutions for the next generation of energy, construction, transport and manufacturing engineers, with the skills needed to support the UK’s transition to Net Zero. The global skills organisation has already seen a surge in demand for green skills qualifications with an estimated 5,000+ courses completed this year – more than a double compared to 2019. 

The new podcast aims to highlight the positive contribution that green skills make to society while looking at how City & Guilds plans to tackle the current skills shortage in the UK.  

City & Guilds already promotes a broad range of green skills, including high-demand retrofit and Electric Vehicle (EV) infrastructure installation qualifications.  As a `voice for skills` the organisation has also called out the need for green skills if the country is to take advantage of opportunities to meet the transition to a low carbon economy through a shift to EV.  

Recognising the need to train the global workforce with the green skills required to help build a sustainable future and forging this partnership with The Green Edge, forms part of City & Guilds’ commitment to progressing its Green Skills Roadmap, to equip workers to deliver skills needed for green markets.   

The new fortnightly podcast series, produced by The Green Edge, will run throughout the rest of 2023 and into 2024 for City & Guilds colleagues, with special editions produced for an external audience.  Find out more here.  

Faiza Khan MBE, Executive Director Corporate Affairs and Foundation, City & Guilds, said:

“The global green economy is evolving at a rapid pace, with new technologies, sectors and skills requirements coming on stream with increasing frequency.  

“This is an ideal opportunity for learning providers like City & Guilds, to get closer to green economic developments and ensure that our course content is driving the skills needed in the jobs market. 

“City & Guilds already promotes qualifications that meet the green agenda, but if we are to keep pace with the fast-evolving green economy, our course offering needs to expand to respond to the needs of learners and employers.  

“This is why we have taken the positive step of collaborating with The Green Edge, who will help us to broaden the range of green skills training that we offer.”  

Dr Michael Cross, Co-Producer of The Green Edge, said:

“We’re thrilled to be working with City & Guilds to help shape and inform its green skills training offer, as one of the leading training providers in the UK.   

“We expect sustainability to one day become a consistent and explicit presence in training programmes and qualifications for all occupations, much like health and safety is today. Which is why it’s vital that, as a leading training provider, City & Guilds is seen to be spearheading this transition to a green skills-based economy.”