- The results of this study identify 14 priority sectors, including renewable energies, the bioeconomy and sustainable forestry.
- 40 strategic occupations are determined, which will have to be created or reoriented to advance, in the next decade, towards the ecological transition.
- To help respond to the needs detected in the study, the Biodiversity Foundation is going to launch the Empleaverde+ Programme as an Intermediate Management Body of the European Social Fund Plus.
May 17, 2023– The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), through the Biodiversity Foundation and the Spanish Office for Climate Change, has published the study “Employment and ecological transition. Sources of employment, labour transformation and training challenges in the sectors related to climate change and biodiversity in Spain”.
This study identifies the sources of employment, the new professional skills and technical and professional skills necessary in the process of ecological transition, in order to be able to effectively address the needs and challenges established in national strategies and plans from the labour market to also achieve the social and territorial integration of our country.
The document seeks to contribute to promoting the ecological transition by betting on improving skills and training in the sectors linked to this transition, since the labour market will have to respond with the creation of new jobs and the reorientation or transformation of existing ones. For this reason, professional training processes are especially important, since a transition in education, training and training is necessary to achieve a transformation of the Spanish labour market.
The report, which focuses on two areas (mitigation and adaptation to climate change and the conservation and management of biodiversity), has identified the main axes of ecological transition that can be considered new employment opportunities, the priority occupations, the main competencies for the professional practice of these occupations, the key means and instruments in the training process and the actions for the improvement of the Spanish training system and the active employment policies.
PRIORITY SECTORS AND STRATEGIC OCCUPATIONS
Following a consultative process with almost 170 key stakeholders, the results of this study identify 14 priority sectors with a high potential for transformation, reconversion and job creation: seven in the field of climate change (mitigation and adaptation) and seven in the field of biodiversity (conservation and development of green infrastructure, connectivity and ecological restoration).
These include the renewable energy sector, energy rehabilitation of buildings, bioeconomy, sustainable agriculture and forestry, circular economy, urban renaturation and ecological restoration. However, this transition will produce a transformation of all productive sectors, since there will be needs along the entire value chain, and all sectors, to different extents, will be affected.
In addition, the study identifies which occupations, both new and existing, will need to be created or reoriented. 40 strategic occupations have been identified to achieve the ecological transition in the next decade. The criteria that have been established for this determination are related to the relevance of the occupation (greater demand for employment, potential for the creation of new jobs or in sectors in the process of restructuring, difficulty in filling the position, urgent need for transformation or reconversion, and occupation crucial for the transition because without it it cannot be carried out).
Finally, the study details the training and training needs that must be covered and proposes guidelines to be taken into account in future public employment policies. For this reason, it includes recommendations to establish a public-private collaborative ecosystem (Administration, social agents, companies and unions) in regulated, vocational and employment training, with greater practical content, a more specialised offer, a permanent assessment and accreditation of professional skills, and the application of new innovative and practical methodologies, such as “learning by doing” methodologies.
EMPLEAVERDE+ PROGRAM
To help respond to the needs detected in the study, the Biodiversity Foundation, as the Intermediate Management Body of the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), is launching a new stage of the Empleaverde Programme.
The new Empleaverde+ Programme will respond to the training needs identified in this study, and will promote the green economy through training, to improve skills for employment and entrepreneurship. To this end, through calls, projects to improve skills and abilities will be supported, within the framework of a culture of lifelong learning. In addition to traditional training projects, there is the possibility of including proposals with “learning by doing” methodologies, which combine theory with practice in the same work environment, with the consequent improvement of employability. This programme has an endowment of 44 million euros and it is planned to publish the first call, endowed with 22 million euros, in the coming months.
