Led by Oxford Brookes University, the project is a collaboration also involving SOS UK, Aston University, De Montfort University, Manchester Metropolitan University, and the University of Exeter.
Project Blog: December 2025
A youth perspective on the Green Skills for Green Jobs CEP
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Lauren Roberts Turner, SOS UK
My name is Lauren, and I’m excited to be working as a Research Assistant at Students Organising for Sustainability UK (SOS UK) on the Green Skills for Green Jobs QAA-funded Collaborative Enhancement Project.
I have recently graduated from a Political Economy degree at King’s College London, and I’m really energised to be part of this project as it combines my research interest in a just transition with my background in youth policy. Away from work and study, I love books, eating cheese, staying in youth hostels and thinking about how we can make the climate transition as positive as possible!
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What are the project’s aims?
The project brings together universities already active in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), employers and students to explore the alignments between ESD, current employability skills commitments, green workforce needs and how different stakeholders feel about navigating green upskilling.
To date we have mapped the green skills literature and assembled all the evidence for employer demand for green skills. We’ll be adapting and reverse engineering the Project Drawdown-Aligned Business Framework and the UNICEF Skills for a Green Transition 2024 framework (building on Kwauk and Casey 2021) to develop an understanding of how universities are already addressing technical, transferable and transformative green skills and areas in need of further improvement.
Currently, we’re planning the workshops that all the universities will be running, to explore:
- How ‘ready’ and equipped students feel with green skills
- Educator perspectives on the successes and challenges of green upskilling to date
- What employers would like to see from graduates’ technical, transferable and transformative skills to address the social and environmental challenges we face
The outputs of the project, due in the summer of 2026, will centre on guidance to universities on how to conceptualise and develop green skills, and to policy makers on how to create a supportive policy environment.
Why does the project matter for young people?
This is an exciting and potentially impactful project because it is an approach to green skills that centres student voice whilst actively listening to educators and employers and connects together their perspectives to create a shared vision of green skills for green jobs.
As the job market becomes more challenging to navigate and the future becomes more uncertain amidst climate change and new technologies, it is difficult to know what skills you should have and if your education is helping you to develop them. In this environment many students are starting to question the value of university education for employability. Yet the demand for green skills is growing and universities, we would argue, do have a central role in equipping the workforce of the future to meet that demand. What’s more, through this project’s inclusive approach to green skills I have come to realise that all jobs can be green jobs, and all students can contribute to sustainability upon graduation.
So, if you’re a student, employer or educator connected to one of the partner universities and interested in the project, please do come along to a workshop or get in touch, we’d love to hear from you! You can get in touch with the project leads at Oxford Brookes at either kcripps@brookes.ac.uk or jlouw@brookes.ac.uk.
What am I most looking forward to?
I can’t wait to witness how the project progresses and to hear directly from students about their thoughts on green skills and how they might use them to shape their future. Excitingly, I will shortly get to join and observe the first Oxford Brookes workshop as part of my role.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to updating you on the project’s progress.
Lauren Roberts Turner, SOS UK