Green Workforce For A Better Tomorrow

The future of the top-paying jobs in the next 10-15 years conjures up images of AI engineers, tech entrepreneurs or data scientists. But, the tech wave is not the only macro trend that will be affecting the future job market. The climate is another huge one. A recent report  by LinkedIn notes that one of the top jobs of the future is going to be that of a ‘Sustainability Manager’.

Sustainability is an entire industry that will generate over 16 million new jobs across different sectors in the country. And to many people’s surprise, these are all top-paying jobs with estimated annual salaries in the range of 60-90 lakhs per annum.

If the future of the job market is going greener, then our education system has to naturally follow suit. The future workforce needs to be equipped with the right tools and attitude to tap into the emerging goldmine of job opportunities in the green economy.

The need of an hour is the dual strategy that focuses on empowering the current generation of students with (1) a sustainable mindset and (2) a problem-solving outlook, to ensure that they can be the creators of this green economy.

Inculcating ‘A Sustainability Mindset’ in Students

With India and many other countries transitioning towards a low-carbon economy, there will be a reshuffle in the skill sets needed from our future workforce. These green skills are going to be relevant across professions and will enter our system as a horizontal layer.

To transition towards a green economy – there will need to be lawyers who specialise in environmental policies, engineers who know how to reduce carbon footprints, and entrepreneurs that create sustainable businesses. This is why every student in school needs to develop an environmental consciousness, regardless of specialisation.

The first recommendation would be to introduce sustainability as an essential skills subject starting immediately. This can be developed as a part of the student’s core development and integrated across different streams; and should further be supplemented by workplace experiences, projects, industry visits, and even internships. Exposing students to the dimensions of this new, green economy at an early stage is crucial.

More than a specialised green workforce, we need to create an all-pervasive mindset of sustainability in our economy. Research shows that if only 16 percent of high school students were to receive climate change education, we could see a reduction of nearly 19 gigatons of carbon dioxide by 2050. Imagine the reduction of emissions if even 50 percent of our students get this education.

Problem-Solving For The Future

For the future workforce to thrive in the upcoming green economy, another horizontal layer needs to be added to school curriculums. This also involves moving away from a system of rote learning and developing problem-solving as a core competency and essential skill-set.

Presently, problem-solving is seen as important only for innovators, entrepreneurs, and maybe economists. But to efficiently solve problems is important for job-seekers across different professions. Students need to be given a real-world opportunity to go out and seek problems, produce a hypothesis, test a solution, and learn from their failures.  

Importantly, this problem-solving needs to be conducted through the lens of the community and not an individual. The age-old question of ‘What’s in it for me?’ needs to change to ‘What’s in it for us?’. The slogan of our future workforce needs to be: If we’re not thriving together, we’re not thriving at all.

Schools should introduce a capstone project for students in high school that requires them to go out and identify any problem affecting residents in their neighbourhood and devise a solution that addresses the same while speaking to members of the community.

While green jobs have already increased by 8 percent, the talent for these jobs has only increased by 6 percent. There is already a shortage that is going unnoticed and we need to act fast if we don’t want the gap to increase.

We need to also focus on upskilling our current workforce as many people may lose their jobs if they do not know how to work on green technology. Especially in the manufacturing, energy, and construction industries.

India’s goal of going carbon-neutral by 2070 will only be possible if there is a holistic integration of ‘a sustainability mindset’ in our students - as they will be the creators and keepers of the future economy and the planet.

(Manav Subodh is managing director, 1M1B (One Million for One Billion))