While Labour branding remains red, the word green has long been central to the Party’s political promises. In 2021, Rachel Reeves declared that she would be the UK’s first ‘Green Chancellor’ and, in 2024, Sir Keir Starmer doubled down on promises to deliver 500,000 new green jobs across the country. A year on, things are starting to look a bit shaky. 

Last week, the CEO of Labour’s new publicly-owned GB Energy – the body aimed at reducing bills and creating jobs in the energy sector – admitted that its flagship pledge to create 1,000 new jobs in Aberdeen could take 20 years. Meanwhile, the Government’s hastily announced Heathrow expansion may be positive for growth, but the move is projected to increase emissions from Heathrow by 30% – something hard to label as particularly green.

Labour has correctly identified that one way to achieve both growth and net zero is through creating green jobs. The Climate Change Committee estimates that as many as 725,000 new jobs in low carbon industries could be created by 2030, with nearly 90,000 green infrastructure jobs needed during this period in Yorkshire and Humberside alone.

In response, the party has taken some positive steps. Labour’s new Energy Skills Passport seeks to help those working in oil and gas production to move into the renewable sector, since more than 90% have skills that could be transferable. This measure aims to prevent large-scale economic damage as seen in Port Talbot. There, a lack of long-term planning for the steelworks closures meant workers were only provided with short-term training programs and redundancy packages, costing the area £200 million in lost wages each year.

Further efforts have been made to address regional imbalances as green jobs remain disproportionately concentrated in the South East: 3.7% of job advertisements in London in 2022 were classified as ‘green,’ compared to just 2.4% in the North East. Here, Labour has expanded on the Conservatives’ Contracts for Difference programme in places such as Grimsby, where the scheme has contributed towards the creation of 600 jobs at Ørsted’s wind farms and is set to create 400 more with last week’s announcement of a new carbon fibre factory on the town’s outskirts.

However, even if Labour delivers these jobs, it underestimates the importance of one critical issue: education.

Recognising skill shortages and over-reliance on foreign workers in some industries, Labour’s 2024 election manifesto promised to replace the Conservatives’ Apprenticeship Levy with a Growth and Skills Levy – a measure aiming to grant employers greater flexibility to fund training, including for shorter courses. However, challenges remain in effectively communicating these pathways to young people.

There is currently a very narrow public understanding of what the term ‘green jobs’ even means, with only 27% of all young people being able to explain the term. Green jobs span a wide range of occupations, from heat pump installers to climate policymakers, environmental lawyers and circular economy specialists. Yet, while most young people want more resources to understand about these career pathways, 56% of teachers lack confidence explaining the range of green jobs available to their students.

While climate change is now being featured in the national curriculum, it is done so in an uncoordinated manner. Worse, there is little Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training available for teachers to learn more about sustainability, something that EarthWatch is trying to change. Without knowing the opportunities available, students cannot be expected to see sustainability as a possible career. 

This lack of understanding at the school level reduces future opportunities for pupils, particularly for apprenticeships that are key to green infrastructure jobs.

While there are plenty of green jobs that do require university-level tuition, many others benefit from a more vocational approach; something that is currently undervalued in the UK. Teachers and parents believe apprenticeships would not suit academic students and so instead guide them towards university. This attitude is largely caused by the education sector’s focus on university enrolment as a key measure of school success. 

In contrast, one-third of Germans leaving school are contracted to do apprenticeships. This is as compared to just 6% in England. This is part of the reason why Germany is able to sustain almost twice as many renewable jobs per capita as the UK. The UK should learn from Germany’s dual education and training model and push for businesses to offer more apprenticeships to meet the growing need.

Starmer’s new growth and skills levy sounds like a positive step in this direction, but it will only work if policymakers and educators can effectively communicate the value of green job options to secondary school students and make this a genuine, respected choice at all achievement levels. 

In order to marry its net zero and growth pledges, the Government must make sure the public has both a true understanding of green jobs and their importance, as well as genuine, attractive pathways for getting them. It has committed funding towards apprenticeships and reskilling – which is good progress –  however, it must now put the same effort into changing the narrative around careers in sustainability in the education sector. Politicians simply using the term ‘green jobs’ in political circles is not enough. Until the image of green jobs stretches beyond clichés of construction workers in high-vis jackets, whole cohorts of high-achieving students will simply discount these options. The pressure is on Labour to deliver.

Antonia Welch is a Member of Bright Blue and a former teacher. The views in this article do not necessarily express the views of Bright Blue.