IEMA-commissioned research suggests that career advisers should target young people at an earlier age than they often do. There are risks but also significant opportunities for the green economy, writes Chris Seekings
It’s well known that the UK faces a huge challenge upskilling and training enough people to achieve the country’s climate and environmental goals, with the energy sector alone facing a green skills gap of 200,000 workers.
Young people will play a key part in closing this gap, but new LinkedIn data shows that Gen Z workers are struggling to secure green jobs, and suggests that just one in eight will have the skills needed to tackle the climate crisis by 2030, despite making up a third of the workforce.
A permanent cross-government body that takes a strategic approach to delivering green jobs would help, while educators, recruiters, training providers, businesses and professional bodies have an important role too.
However, is it possible that these groups are missing a trick by failing to target an even younger age cohort?
Cause for concern
An IEMA-commissioned survey of UK career leaders last year found that 50% believe the appropriate time to start familiarising young people with green jobs is between ages seven and 11, yet the National Careers Service helpline is only open to people aged 13 and over.
Talking to children about careers at such a young age is an emotive subject, with some parents fearful they will ‘grow up too quickly’, missing out on the fundamental joys of being a child and being burdened with unnecessary pressure to succeed.
“Way too early. Let them be children, for crying out loud,” was one response to a Mumsnet thread on the subject last year, while another said: “If you want happy kids, don’t push them in any direction.” However, of the 49 replies, the consensus among parents was that introducing children to the world of work would be harmless, with many more welcoming career learning in primary school than opposing it.
Whether we like it or not, there is much evidence to suggest that we begin to limit and expand our career options at a very early age.
Breaking stereotypes
American psychologist Linda Gottfredson’s theory of self-creation, circumscription and compromise suggests that children have already begun to identify roles and occupations that adults have by the age of three.
They start classifying job roles that apply to themselves based on gender by ages six to eight, according to the theory, and begin discarding potential occupations based on their social status between ages nine to 13 – beliefs that remain permanent if unchallenged.
“All the evidence shows how important it is to start the careers conversation with young people early,” says Mark Hastings, senior communications manager at The Careers & Enterprise Company, the body for careers education in England.
“Kids start forming ideas about their future at a young age, so it’s important to inspire them, help them explore the world of work, and also to break down gender and other stereotypes about certain jobs being for certain types of people.”
Construction workers, engineers and agriculture workers are just a few of the occupations traditionally seen as male roles, which are critical to the net-zero transition, while figures from Energy & Utility Skills’ 2023 Inclusion Measurement Framework reveal that women make up just 27.5% of the UK’s energy sector.
The sustainability profession is among the least diverse sectors in the UK – 3.1% of environment professionals identify as minorities, compared with 19.9% in all occupations – and providing role models for children could be key to addressing this imbalance.
Inspiring the future
So how do we do this? The answer may partially lie in sustainability professionals in all sectors visiting children – whether in person or virtually – to demonstrate the exciting career opportunities on offer.
The charity Education and Employers has been organising such visits for years, including with the NHS – which is also in desperate need of new talent – but has thus far not been approached by many businesses in the sustainability sector. “Your sector has such an amazing range of careers and diversity of jobs, most of which children have not heard of,” says founder and CEO Nick Chambers. “It’s an area where your members could make a really big difference.
“If you ask children what’s important to them, the environment is very high up. Intrinsically, children are interested in this, but they just don’t see the role models, and you can’t be what you can’t see.”
Over 80% of secondary schools and 35% of primary schools are signed up to the charity’s Inspiring the Future initiative, which provides a matchmaking service with volunteers to talk to young people about their careers.
“IEMA has an awful lot of members, and they do some really interesting jobs, and I know kids around the country would love to have a chance to find out more.”
Career-related learning
Chambers is keen to distinguish between career advice and what he calls “career-related learning”, adding: “Children should get to see the breadth of opportunities
at an early age, so they don’t rule out options for themselves at a later stage.”
It’s increasingly clear that employers, particularly within sustainability, must be at the heart of careers education; working with schools and colleges to showcase opportunity, develop skills and highlight pathways into rewarding jobs.
Hastings explains how 86% of employers already doing this work across all sectors believe it is encouraging young people to take up careers in their industry, and urges employers in the green economy to do the same.
“Young people are already aware of and asking questions about climate change and biodiversity loss from an early age,” he says.
“They are our future scientists, engineers, doctors and builders. They will be living with and developing the solutions to these challenges.” Indeed, IEMA believes that all jobs must be greener if we are to build a sustainable economy.
The way forward
Linking the curriculum to careers is still not sufficiently common, with a recent Ofsted report stating that this “needed more development” in a quarter of UK schools.
Although it involved a small sample, IEMA’s survey last year also found that 35% of careers information, advice and guidance professionals are less confident about offering guidance on green careers than on other career pathways, while only 4% rated young people’s understanding of green careers as ‘good’. “I feel really inadequate now, with the way that things are changing in the world, with giving advice about jobs,” an anonymous career adviser revealed in a focus group commissioned by IEMA last year.
It’s also important to consider the crucial role of parents and carers in shaping young minds. “It takes a village to raise a child, and that involves parents, schools and teachers and all the other networks that surround young people,” Hastings adds.
However, it is still often the case that children are encouraged to take traditional career routes. “Parents are often some of the biggest barriers, because they’re sadly very ignorant about the future opportunities,” another anonymous career adviser said in a focus group last year. “They often tend to say ‘play safe, go with something you know’.”
There is a real opportunity for sustainability professionals to emerge as role models for young people – rather than footballers or Youtubers – and inspire them to choose a career path that plugs the skills gap threatening our climate and environmental goals.
“Children from a young age can be very insightful and thoughtful, and often have a much better understanding of the world than we give them credit for,” Chambers says. “We met a young girl who wanted to be a nurse because her aunt died from cancer.
“The career aspirations of seven-year-olds often have a lot in common with those of 17-year-olds, and we need to spark their imagination.”
