LONDON, ENGLAND — Jobs in renewable energy are trending upwards as global businesses embrace more environmentally friendly, sustainable ways of life.
“Green” jobs have moved beyond being a buzzword to a more all-encompassing move to conducting business in a way that doesn’t harm our environment.
In fact, according to The Conversation, an academic and research community, jobs in renewable energy and similar environmental industries have grown by a whopping 237 percent in just the last five years alone.
Billions of dollars of investments have been made in this arena, whether for more traditional green jobs like solar panel technicians and environmental scientists or industries one wouldn’t typically think of when it comes to sustainability — like fashion, manufacturing, and trade.
More Workers Needed for Green Jobs
There’s just one problem: despite their boom in popularity, green jobs are struggling to find suitably skilled workers to hire.
The Conversation highlighted this conundrum in a recent article, suggesting some ways it could be addressed.
“To meet today’s global sustainability challenges, the corporate world needs more than a few chief sustainability officers [...] It needs an army of employees, in all areas of business, thinking about sustainability in their decisions every day.” they said.
“It [the corporate world] needs an army of employees, in all areas of business, thinking about sustainability in their decisions every day."
“That means product designers, supply managers, economists, scientists, architects, and many others with the knowledge to both recognize unsustainable practices and find ways to improve sustainability for the overall health of their companies and the planet."
“Employers are increasingly looking for those skills.”
Bridging the Skills Gap with EcoCareers
But both jobseekers and employers have a new resource they can rely on to bridge this gap, in the form of EcoCareers.
The website was created to help address the needs of the green sector as they source the best talent while trying to operate their businesses in a sustainable way.
While The Conversation pointed out that ongoing efforts in skills and jobs training will be needed to ensure more people are sufficiently qualified to work in the green economy, resources like EcoCareers will help to close the labour shortage in this increasingly vital field.