PARIS, June 22 — Young people’s environmental consciousness is increasingly becoming a decisive factor in their professional lives. While many people under the age of 30 say they want to work in an environmentally-conscious job, they lack the necessary skills to make this a reality.
And the figures reflect this skills gap. Worldwide, only one out of 20 Gen Z workers are sufficiently trained to apply for a green job, according to LinkedIn. But they aren’t necessarily aware of that. In fact, only 40 per cent of Gen Z workers say they lack the necessary skills for a job that contributes directly to preserving the environment.
Young people think that they’re penalised more by their lack of professional experience, or by the fact that there are few positions of this kind currently available. However, on the latter point, they’re mistaken. The International Labour Organisation estimates that 24 million green jobs will be created worldwide by 2030. LinkedIn last year noted that, on its platform, the number of job offers mentioning at least one green skill increased by 22.4 per cent between 2022 and 2023.
So what accounts for the discrepancy in terms of Generation Z’s awareness of this demand? Efrem Bycer, sustainability and employment policy specialist at LinkedIn, believes that young people may have a limited view of what a green job is. “If you think the universe of climate jobs have sustainability in the title or are at a climate tech company, that’s a limited view. There’s a lot more jobs that contribute to climate action. So the problem is partly skills, partly signaling,” he told Business Insider.
The fight against climate change is the concern of everyone. Sooner or later, every company, whatever its sector of activity, will have to take action to implement a sustainable roadmap. This process of ecological transition will also contribute to the creation of new professions that relate to environmental issues.
But working people, especially in younger generations, still need to have the necessary qualifications in order to make valuable contributions to companies’ greening process. Only 41 per cent of the members of Generation Z surveyed by LinkedIn said they could follow a training course that would help them acquire green skills, whereas 78 per cent would like to have the opportunity. Institutions and public authorities therefore need to facilitate these types of training, as do companies on a corporate level. — ETX Studio
