The second report for the Green Skills at Vocational Education and Training project published today by Landward Research is a Quantitative analysis of the perception of green skills by VET trainers, VET students, and employers.
This is the detailed analysis of over 1,750 questionnaire responses, completed by educators, learners and employers in five countries – UK, Spain, Italy, Romania and Turkey – on their experiences of, and attitudes to, vocational education and training for construction workers and electricians.
Written by Ben Lewis, Niloufar Javadi Abhari and Anjumon Ali, the report finds:
- In terms of the four green skills working areas defined by the project and questionnaire, 68% of
educators agreed that green skills are taught by their institution, with 64% teaching green skills
themselves and 68% believing that their institution could teach green skills. This was somewhat
reflected by learner participants – 56% of which believed they were learning green skills – which may
be indicative of a difference in understanding of what constitutes ‘green skills’ between teachers and
their students. In Turkey, the majority of learners (79%) believed they were not learning green skills.
Across all target groups, ‘expert procedural knowledge on energy, waste, resource efficiency, and
sustainable development’ was considered the most important green skill by employers and learners,
and second-most important by educators. ‘Being responsible for environmental management’ was
the least important aspect of green skill amongst all groups. ‘Environmental awareness’ was
considered the most important green skill by educators. Educators that taught green skills were
likely to select ‘environmental awareness’ as a green skill that they teach. However only 43% teach
‘expert procedural knowledge’ – the most important aspect amongst learners and employers –
possibly suggesting a discrepancy between skills desirability and their provision. - More than two-thirds of total educators believed that there was insufficient resources to teach
green skills, the greatest problem being a lack of didactic framework. On average, educators
intended on developing green skills education, although 53% indicated that they do not have the
opportunities to do so. - Amongst employers, 84% agreed that green skills are or could be relevant in their workplace. On
average, 58% consider that their staff need green skills, and a similar percentage (53%) consider that
their staff already have green skills – although notably in Turkey 78% of employers consider their
staff to not have green skills. Reflecting employer choice for ‘most important green skill’ – ‘expert
procedural knowledge’ ranked highly amongst both green skills employer needs and the skills
already possessed, suggesting a desire for applicable green skills in practice. - For new employees, 60% of employers prefer applicants to already possess green skills at
recruitment stage. Amongst leaners, 69% believe that having green skills will help them find a job,
four-fifths believing they will use green skills in their working life. Employers in general did not agree
that new entrants to the workforce are aware of and suitably qualified in green skills (61% no),
particulary in Romania and Turkey. In Spain, however, 71% of employers believed new entrants were
aware and qualified. - Results indicate that most training in green skills occurs before employment – on average 69% of
employers do not evaluate green skills after recruitment, and 80% do not provide green skills
training to their staff.
The full report is available for download at: https://landward.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Green-Skills-O2-Report.pdf
