Confusion on green skills a key barrier for mid-career workers

Stubborn skills shortages are holding back the economic growth that the UK government prizes above all else. This is a decades-old problem that continues to perplex politicians and policymakers regardless of political ideology. Sir Keir Starmer hopes his approach to diagnosing and treating the issue, which involves creating Skills England and introducing a new industrial strategy, will help kickstart growth and boost productivity. 

There are few sectors where skills shortages are as much of a barrier to growth as in the industries transitioning to net zero, in particular construction and manufacturing. Indeed as we transition to a low carbon economy, every sector will see a shift in its workforce - workers will need to learn new skills and it will need to hire workers in specifically to help it transition.  PWC estimates there will be a shortfall of around 200,000 UK workers in 2030 needed to fill jobs delivering net zero, such as building new pylons and electric charge points. 

Helping people already in the workforce into these roles will help tackle the skills gap. However, our new research shows that for mid-to-late career workers considering a switch, confusion around what a green job is and negative perceptions of the security, pay and access to these roles compounds existing barriers. This is a space in which, as anchor institutions, universities could proactively intervene to help the mid-career workers in their community access resources to reduce the barriers identified in our research.

The challenge

In the UK, the struggle to get enough qualified people into jobs vital for achieving net zero, like construction or clean heat, threatens the government’s two key missions - clean power and economic growth. It is therefore encouraging to see green skills shortages listed as one of the top priorities to tackle when the new government published its industrial strategy green paper earlier this month. Put simply, if businesses fear they won’t be able to hire the right people, they aren’t going to invest in the UK. 

The UK Climate Change Committee estimates that as many as 725,000 jobs could be created by 2030 in low-carbon sectors such as building retrofit, renewable energy generation, and the manufacture of electric vehicles. The problem is that we don’t have enough workers to fill these roles, and skills shortages are already slowing progress to net zero and harming UK businesses. 

The challenge for policy makers is how do you equip thousands of people with the right skills for these roles, and the willingness and support to pursue them? And how do we do that by… yesterday? 

The barriers for mid-career switchers

Whilst policy makers and educators have focussed on encouraging young people to pursue green roles, the urgency and scale of the problem means we need to also encourage people already in the workforce. 

Policy focused on new entrants to the workforce, namely school and college leavers or graduates, will see delayed payoffs. Whilst important, young workers entering the workforce in the 2030s won’t help us to achieve clean power by 2030 - for that we need workers to make the switch into green jobs now. We need to supplement the pool of young entrants with others, including those in their mid- to late- careers. There are now almost 11 million UK workers aged 50 or over, constituting roughly a third of the current workforce. How can educators and government encourage them to move into a green job? 

This area has received little research or policy focus, which is why Public First, commissioned by Phoenix Insights, decided in June 2024 to explore the attitudes of people in their mid- to late-careers who were considering a job switch. We found that many don't view green jobs as attractive or competitive. This is driven by low awareness and misunderstandings around green roles such as retrofit coordinator, EV technician and project manager in construction. 

In two focus groups in the West Midlands region of England, participants’ attitudes toward key green jobs were defined by uncertainty. The roles felt unfamiliar, outside their sector, and raised concerns about job security, pay, and the need for significant re-skilling. Mid- to late-career workers, with a lower risk appetite than younger counterparts, are more likely to seek roles that offer immediate availability. Unsurprisingly, many felt that frontline net-zero jobs were “for young people, not for us."

As one factory worker, aged 50, put it: “The younger kids coming through college now, this is going to appeal to them... For people who are older, we’re kind of stuck in our ways."

Another participant, an IT manager aged 47, echoed this: “It’s not so much that it’s significant training. It’s a complete reskill from what I do. It’s something I could see my son doing though.”

This new research shows that a lack of awareness and misperceptions of green jobs compound existing barriers to mid- and late- career workers making a switch. If the government and employers want to attract workers in their mid- to late- careers into green jobs, then potential employees will need a lot more education and support than they would ordinarily. 

This is an area that educators looking to meaningfully support their local community would be well placed to intervene. Educators could use their significant resources and positions as anchor institutions to help to close the green skills gap, transforming perceptions, making green jobs not just an option, but an attractive no-brainer for workers ready to make their next move. 

As a skills and employment lead in local government put it: “How do you talk to people about these jobs when they don't know what they are, they don’t what they’d be like?... As long as we don’t make them visible, then people won’t think ‘yes, they are for me.’

 

Phoenix / Public First research: Phoenix Insights (2024) Resourcing the net zero transition: What do workers in their mid- and late- careers think of 'green' jobs? (London: The Phoenix Group).