Just Transition Planning Toolbox

The Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) City Deal was established by ten local authorities in the Cardiff Capital Region, as well as the UK and Welsh Governments, with the aim of unlocking investment that can help the region to build on its sectoral strengths, high skill base and universities. It supports targeted investments in skills, infrastructure, innovation-led scalable projects and priority industry sectors and businesses. Among its strategies, a manufacturing cluster focused on semi-conductors (the Compound Semiconductor Cluster) was established, to catalyse private sector investment, create high-skilled jobs both directly and in related supply chains, and stimulate further regional investment.

To support the cluster, further education and higher education institutions across the region have worked together with industrial partners to design courses that are aligned to the needs of the sector, and there has also been an increase in research and development and innovation activity around the cluster among the region’s universities:

• Local Technical Colleges, including Cardiff & Vale College and Merthyr College, are offering “Compound Semiconductor pathway courses” with various levels of qualifications; 
• Three local Further Education institutions, Bridgend College, Coleg Gwent and Coleg y Cymoedd, are providing apprenticeship level entry opportunities; 
• Open University Cymru and University of South Wales offer higher level apprenticeship programs, and at Open University Cymru this includes Degree Apprenticeship programmes; 
• University of South Wales has developed a bespoke Semiconductor Degree Apprenticeship, that is integrated into the skills and development strategy of local semi-conductor manufacturer Nexperia, such that employees are able to extend their existing qualifications; 
• Cardiff University’s School of Engineering created a one-year MSc in Compound Semiconductor Electronics, in collaboration with the Institute for Compound Semiconductors. The Institute works closely with industry partners with the aim of moving academic research at the university to a stage where it can be introduced reliably and quickly into the production environment; 
• Cardiff University has also established a PhD in Compound Semiconductor Manufacturing, in partnership with various other universities in the UK.

Scotland’s Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan aims to ensure people have the skills to engage and succeed as the country recovers from COVID-19 and transitions to net zero. The Action Plan describes a direction for the reorientation of the national skills system in relation to sectors identified as key to the transition to net zero, particularly energy, construction, transport, manufacturing and agriculture. It also outlines the roles that businesses, communities and individuals across Scotland should play towards this. 

A range of different stakeholders were engaged during the preparation of the plan, including Industry Leadership Groups and an Expert Group comprising Skills Development Scotland, the Scottish Funding Council, Zero Waste Scotland, the Scottish Cities Alliance, NatureScot, the Scottish Government’s Domestic Climate Change and Skills Divisions, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Enterprise, South of Scotland Enterprise, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Strathclyde. 

The Plan identifies that certain groups face distinct barriers to participating in the new jobs market, for example, based on their age, disability, ethnicity and/or gender. It flags that there is an opportunity, as the Scottish economy shifts towards net zero, to use these structural changes to narrow labor market inequalities, by intentionally tackling these barriers as part of the agenda to build the new skills ecosystem. 

Some of the actions identified are immediate or near-term measures, while some are longer-term actions that will allow the skills system to be responsive and adjust over time. These include: 

• The establishment of a Green Jobs Workforce Academy to support existing employees and those at risk of becoming redundant to assess existing skills and participate in upskilling or reskilling to secure green job opportunities; 
• The establishment of a Green Jobs Skills Hub, which will inform the skills system on the numbers and types of jobs that will be needed over the next 25 years; 
• The creation of a Climate Emergency Economic and Investment Leadership Group to manage the alignment of skills investment with broader national economic objectives; and
• Encouraging increased participation in apprenticeships in green jobs.

The Philippines Climate Change Commission (CCC) developed its Climate Science Youth Program as a way of enhancing the knowledge of young people about topics related to climate change adaptation and mitigation, thus building capacity for future climate action planning.

The program is a collaboration with the Department of Education and the National Panel of Technical Experts (NPTE). It intends to integrate the latest climate science information into the secondary education curriculum, giving future leaders knowledge on the importance of climate action and its linkages to other parts of sustainable development.

As part of the program, a National Climate Science Youth Congress was held in 2018, with a focus on water security in the face of climate change. In 2019, the CCC organized the Gawad CCC: Search for Outstanding Young Climate Scientists, which offered high school students in the National Capital Region an opportunity to present their research related to the Food-Water-Energy nexus. The platform – which featured projects from various schools addressing topics such as food safety, mosquito control, disease detection, water purification, and bioplastics – was intended as a way of showcasing the creative solutions and potential of young climate leaders in the Philippines to tackle climate change.

There is a need to identify and put in place the key institutions and policies needed to take advantage of the job opportunities that are likely to accompany the transition to a net-zero emissions economy. To this end, Ecuador’s Ministry of Labor, together with the Inter-American Development Bank, developed – and is implementing – a four-step approach to analyzing and realizing the green economy’s employment potential.  

The first step involves the generation of data on green labor markets. Various studies have been undertaken to assess job prospects in the agriculture, energy, transportation, water, and waste management sectors. 

Second, a Green Jobs Coordination Committee has been created to promote policy coherence and coordination between economic, environmental and labor objectives. The Committee defines job-related goals and priorities in green sectors and ensures that policy objectives translate into employment and skills development. 

Third, coordination between the productive and training sectors for green skills development is being promoted. The Ministry of Labor also issued a Ministerial Resolution to implement guidelines for the incorporation of a hybrid training offer in green jobs that is aligned with the needs of green productive sectors. Ecuador has promoted the so-called Strategy for the Promotion of Green Employment to establish a framework for employment initiatives aimed at achieving a successful transition to a green economy. 

Fourth, a model for the provision of specialized employment services is being created to support the reallocation of labor to emerging or growing green sectors. 

Finally, the online platform Encuentra Empleo is being used to disseminate accurate and timely information on green jobs to interested job seekers, through events or web portals with job and training opportunities. Encuentra Empleo also seeks to help the formation of partnerships by serving as an intermediary between the training and productive sectors, for example by facilitating collaboration between employers and training centers to identify short and effective retraining modules. 

To close Belize’s green economy skills gap, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science, and Technology (MOECST), Solar Energy Solutions Belize (SESB), the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and other private sector partners started a modern technical and vocational education and training (TVET) ecosystem in the country.

By creating opportunities to train youth to work in renewable energies, this project aims to offer highly qualified professionals to a new industry with high employment generation potential that also supports the transition to the green economy.

As part of this education and training program, the Nova Scotia Community College developed a 2-year renewable energy program at the Belize City Institute for Vocational Technical Education and Training (ITVET). The course provides a basic certification after the first year focused on renewable energies, energy efficiency, and energy demand management topics, and a more advanced certification/degree at the end of the second year that offers a specialization in solar photovoltaic energy.

The medium-term vision of the project is to promote Belize as a laboratory for innovation in skills formation on green energy for the English-speaking Caribbean. The content of the course has been made available for countries across the region through a community of practice and an online knowledge-sharing platform that works as an information repository.

The Future Skills Centre (FSC) is a research collaboration working across Canada to ensure access to career advice and learning opportunities that are tailored to a constantly changing economy. In a context of widening inequalities in the labor market, and unequal access to training opportunities (based on income, geography and background), the FSC focuses especially on increasing access to training among typically underrepresented and disadvantaged people.

The Centre supports research to identify how global trends are likely to affect the Canadian economy, and to identify future skills needs for the workforce. Research findings are publicly shared through the FSC’s website.

It then also tests, and measures the effectiveness of, innovative approaches to skills development and training. It does so by funding and partnering with different groups to lead innovation projects, across Canada, that test new ways of delivering skills training and assessment and which can inform policy development in this area. Various organizations are eligible to partner with the centre, including provincial and territorial governments, Indigenous governments and organizations, industry organizations, labour organizations, education and training institutions, and not-for-profit organizations.

These new skills approaches are oriented towards effectively supporting displaced workers and proactively intervening for those at risk of displacement.

The Hunter Valley is one of Australia’s main coal mining and coal power regions, and so faces the prospect of major socio-economic transition over the coming decades. The Hunter Jobs Alliance – a collection of labour unions and community groups working in the Hunter Valley –  has identified that the future prosperity of the region’s economy, and the community providing its work force, depends on filling crucial skills gaps through high quality, public vocational education. 

To meet this need, the Alliance has put forward a proposal for the creation of a permanent, publicly funded New Industries Training Centre to be located in the Hunter Valley, which would be set upunder the state-wide technical education system. The mission of this centre would be to create clear pathways for workers who may be affected by closure of coal mines and power plants, and to meet the vocational training needs for growth industries such as renewable energy, clean technology, green hydrogen and decarbonised manufacturing across the State. It should help to ensure local people can acquire high quality skills and secure jobs as the regional economy undergoes structural changes. The Alliance suggests mining and energy workers in the Hunter would be eligible for free courses, as part of re-skilling support. 

To support the proposal, the Alliance commissioned a detailed assessment of the business case be prepared, so that stakeholders, particularly governments, can clearly understand why a New Industries Training Centre in the region is needed.

The Next Tourism Generation Alliance (NTG) is a European partnership set up to develop new tools and methodologies that connect vocational education, training and higher education systems with the needs of enterprises of the tourism sector. The alliance brings together educational institutions, industry organizations, businesses, and policymakers.

The NTG created a NTG Skills gaps & future skills Toolkit to offer ideas, examples, and practical resources for addressing the digital, green, and social gaps in the tourism and hospitality industry. The toolkit can be used to map existing training and qualifications, job profiles, training needs analysis, and job descriptions, so as to identify gaps and inform the development of curriculum and training programmes within educational institutions, training providers, and employers’ training programs.

A follow up initiative, PANTOUR, was set up to develop new tools and methodologies that support the design of cooperative solutions which address skills needs in the tourism ecosystem. It has or will produce a Sectoral Skills Intelligence Monitor, a Skills Lab, a Resource Books for Trainers, and a Skills Strategy Plan for 2026-2036.