In its response to the
Environmental Audit Committee’s report, Green Jobs, the
Government has confirmed that key government departments are not
currently represented in its Green Jobs Delivery Group, and that
no changes will be made to the national curriculum to embed
environmental sustainability in education.
However, the Government has expressed its commitment to ensure
the right skills and wider employment support are in place to
support people into green jobs. The Committee welcomes news that
the Department for Work and Pensions is considering how net zero
and environmental goals can be incorporated into the design
stages of future labour market interventions. The Government has
also confirmed that it will report periodically on progress on
embedding green jobs across government schemes.
Despite these positive moves, the Government does not plan to
embed environmental sustainability across all primary and
secondary school courses and in A Levels. It stated that
sustainability elements of apprenticeships and T-Levels will only
be covered where occupationally relevant.
The Committee is concerned that the Government’s Green Jobs
Delivery Group has failed to include ministers from HM Treasury
and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities,
despite the departments’ important roles in supporting the UK’s
net zero goals. The Committee has therefore written to the
Government today querying this, and how the group will achieve
its objectives to support green jobs in sectors across the
economy.
Environmental Audit Committee Chairman, Rt Hon MP, said:
“The Government’s general commitment to ensure the right
skills are in place for the green transition is welcome, as is
the work being done by the Department for Work and Pensions to
ensure how green goals can be incorporated into labour market
interventions.
“When we published our report in October, we expressed
concern that the Government’s grand ambitions to deliver two
million green jobs lacked policy detail. This is sadly borne out
in the response. Government departments lack a central
coordination function to deliver green jobs policies. The
national curriculum is not embedding environmental sustainability
nor even restoring the teaching of nature into schools as we had
recommended. The Government’s response to our report is therefore
disappointing.
“This Government’s current piecemeal approach to green
jobs does not give the confidence boost to those industrial
sectors that will require, and need to develop, the green skills
of the future.”
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