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<p>The government is committed to supporting green skills across the country. At
the recent Spending Review, we set out investment of £3.8 billion in further education
and skills over the course of the Parliament as a whole, to ensure people can access
high quality training and education that leads to good jobs, addresses skills gaps,
boosts productivity and supports levelling up. This includes funding for programmes
to support green skills crucial to the net zero transition.</p><p>Building on the
skills for jobs white paper, the Net Zero Strategy (published in October 2021) sets
out how the government’s skills reforms will strengthen links between employers and
providers, support workers in high carbon sectors with the transition, and help to
build a pipeline of future talent.</p><p>Through the Lifetime Skills Guarantee, we
are supporting workers to gain the skills they need to transition to the green economy,
including through targeted support for retraining. As part of this and through the
National Skills Fund investment, we are delivering Skills Bootcamps, which are short,
flexible courses covering digital, technical and green skills. Green Skills Bootcamps
are available in areas such as housing retrofit, solar, nuclear energy and vehicle
electrification.</p><p>The Free Courses for Jobs offer has, since April 2021, been
supporting adults who do not have a qualification at level 3 or higher to access over
400 level 3 courses for free. The offer currently includes qualifications linked to
green sectors such as agriculture, building and construction, engineering, environmental
conservation, horticulture and forestry and science. This offer replaces loan funding
with grant funding for any adult over the age of 23 looking to achieve their first
level 3 qualification. In addition, we have recently announced that, from April this
year, any adult in England who is earning under the National Living Wage annually
(£18,525), or is unemployed, will also be able to access these qualifications for
free, regardless of their prior qualification level.</p><p>At post-16 level, we will
continue to build on our apprenticeship reforms, to align the majority of post-16
technical education and training with employer-led standards by 2030. A strengthened
system of employer-led standards, underpinning apprenticeships, T Levels and new higher
technical qualifications will ensure employers, including in low carbon sectors, have
a central role in designing and developing qualifications and training.</p><p>High
quality apprenticeships give students of all ages the practical skills, knowledge,
and behaviours to make an immediate impact across all industries. The Institute for
Apprenticeships and Technical Education (the Institute) has convened a Green Apprenticeships
Advisory Panel (GAAP) to work with employers to align apprenticeships to net zero
objectives. Work is underway to map existing apprenticeship standards against green
occupations and identify opportunities to create new standards in areas including
retrofit, agri-tech and renewable energy and the GAAP has endorsed existing apprenticeships
which support green career pathways.</p><p>In 2021, we introduced the first occupational
traineeships, in collaboration with sector bodies, to provide a clear, planned transition
to an apprenticeship at level 2 to 3 for young people aged 16 to 24. They allow young
people to continue in learning with a work-based programme of training. Going forward,
we will consider the potential to develop and introduce other occupational traineeships,
including in priority and green sectors to ensure that young people secure the jobs
of the future.</p><p>We are continuing to roll out T Levels that support green careers,
providing high quality technical qualifications as an alternative to A levels which
are underpinned by the same employer-led approach as apprenticeships. The building
services engineering for construction T Level, launched in September 2021, will cover
housing retrofit and heat pump installation. From September 2022, new T Levels will
be available in engineering, manufacturing, processing and control, with agriculture,
land management and production available by September 2023. The Institute is exploring
the suitability of potential future T Levels and occupational specialisms, focusing
on areas to support green skills.</p><p>Our network of Institutes of Technology (IoT)
across England specialise in delivering higher technical education and are utilising
their state of the art facilities to offer training in green skills. This includes
the East London IoT which offers training in green and zero carbon energy production,
and the Greater Birmingham and Solihull IoT which focuses on sustainable engineering.
The network is supporting increased participation from underrepresented groups, including
women, helping to grow the pipeline of individuals with science, technology, engineering
and maths (STEM) skills needed for green jobs. We are investing £120 million in the
second wave of IoTs, to be up and running this year.</p><p>Working alongside industry,
we will continue to ensure that our existing skills programmes can be directed to
support the net zero agenda, and where appropriate identify further opportunities
to flex key skills programmes to support green sectors and occupations.</p>
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