Universities pressured to shift curricula as green jobs grow

With major corporations within the European Union already required to submit sustainability reports on their exposure to and their impact on climate change and sustainability, and other jurisdictions to follow suit, demand for ‘green jobs’ is rising.

The proportion of jobs deemed ‘green’, or promoting sustainability, depends on how these jobs are defined – but researchers agree that their number is growing quickly, as many countries pursue net-zero carbon emission goals.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) describes green jobs relatively narrowly, as those that help preserve or restore the environment, in manufacturing and construction, or new, emerging green sectors such as renewable energy and energy efficiency. They improve energy and raw materials efficiency; limit greenhouse gas emissions; minimise waste and pollution; protect and restore ecosystems; and support adaptation to the impact of climate change.

Following this description, roughly, global accounting network Deloitte has predicted that more than 300 million additional ‘green collar’ jobs could be created by 2050 – most countries’ deadline for achieving net zero.



Just the renewable energy sector added 700,000 jobs in 2020 to 2021, reaching 12.7 million, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

Deloitte has reported that the proportion of jobs requiring ‘green talent’ rose from 9.6% to 13.3% worldwide from 2015 to 2021. Between 2016 and 2021, growth in job numbers included sustainability managers (up 30%), wind turbine technicians (24%), solar consultants (23%), ecologists (22%) and environmental health and safety specialists (20%).

The United States Department of Labor predicts employment number growth in the next decade of 68% for wind turbine technicians; 52% for solar PV installers, 24% for forest fire inspectors and prevention specialists, 11% for environmental science and protection technicians, and 10% for soil and plant scientists or foresters.

Further, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group of 96 cities worldwide concluded in a 2020 to 2022 study of 53 global cities on five continents that more than 14 million jobs out of 135 million assessed were ‘green’.

Dr Debra Rowe, president of the US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development and an international advocate for environmental health, said it was important to use broader definitions of green jobs within higher education institutions educating students to undertake these jobs now and in the future.

The ILO definition “is accurate but narrow for those of us advocating for a sustainable future”, she told University World News.

Green jobs need to help protect life-preserving ecosystem services such as clean water and air and, she stressed, the green economy needs to be an inclusive economy: “If it’s not part of a larger sustainable economy, it will not survive.”

So, in addition to courses delivering important technical skills, broader sustainability-focused education is needed that also addresses policy and economics and entrepreneurship, to build the governance, regulation and businesses underpinning green and sustainable economics.

Key role for curricula in skills shift

How might such a shift in skilling and outlook be achieved? Integrating education for sustainable development (ESD) into higher education curricula can play a key role.

A document released by the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges in the United Kingdom at its annual conference in June 2024 stressed how ESD boosted the likelihood of students being supportive of and well adapted to taking on green jobs.

“ESD generally has a strong focus on development of values, capacities and attributes, and strong links to social justice, acknowledging the interconnectedness of social and economic issues,” according to the document.

It delivers skills that chime with green job demands such as systems thinking, change making, coalition building, future thinking, working with complexity, reflexivity, interdisciplinary thinking, self-awareness, agency, initiative and more. Of course, it said, ESD can also impart key technical skills aiding sustainability-focused work in areas including sustainable construction, renewable energy, circular waste management and green lab skills.

Connecting ESD to green jobs

Rowe’s green jobs paper, co-authored with the United Nations Environment Programme, highlighted three key actions linking ESD to green employment.

First, knowledge enhancement – integrating environmental sustainability and learning outcomes across all curricula means students are prepared more for green jobs; second, skills and competency development – give educators the ability to teach students competencies and skills required for green jobs; and third, job opportunities – strengthening ties between employers, educators and students, helping employers to aid curricular updates and increasing job placements.

Researchers have highlighted how higher education is important in this process, concluding that green jobs on average require greater skills than employment in less sustainable sectors.

A January 2024 paper in the journal Sustainability Science noted studies concluding that green employment “required higher levels of education, work experience and job training, and more intensively high-level cognitive and interpersonal skills compared to non-green jobs”.

It said the US Bureau of Labor Statistics had demonstrated that green industries “increased the quantity of workers demanded from the middle of the skill distribution” while “reducing demand for lower skilled workers”. The bureau concluded that it is higher education graduates who gain the most from the expansion of green jobs.

German research has shown that the share of graduates within wind and solar power staff is three times the national employment average, the paper said. United Kingdom data showed that 90% of offshore wind power jobs have been in “the high to medium skill categories”.

UNESCO has pushed for higher education worldwide to do more to equip graduates for green and sustainability-focused jobs. Its Greening Curriculum Guidance, released earlier this year, called for curricula to pass on “the knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes needed to live in, develop and support a sustainable and resource-efficient society”.

Graduates should be able to introduce technological and financial innovations to their workplace and-or community that boost sustainability; they should be able to investigate supply and demand in local green job markets; and develop the skills required. The goal of the guidance is to aid learning institutions to “effectively prepare learners to tackle the climate crisis and create solutions needed to build a sustainable future”.

Linking higher and vocational education

UNESCO runs a Greening Education Partnership that encompasses different levels of education, including technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, aiming to prepare graduates for sustainability-focused “careers in renewable energy, hospitality and tourism, fashion and beauty, green enterprises, waste management, green construction, sustainable agriculture, and other sectors that need to prioritise environmental responsibility”.

Rowe thinks linking universities and higher education colleges with TVETs in developing green and sustainable job skills is indeed important.

She told University World News: “Universities need to coordinate more effectively with TVETs and high schools” in developing and coordinating educational opportunities across their institutions. Curricula need to “make students understand our sustainability challenges and be able to engage in the solutions”.

That means enabling graduates to build a sustainable world through multiple roles, as a consumer, a family member or neighbour, through voting, civic engagement, advocacy and more; it also means more green skills being integrated in continuing education for adults.

Students push for curricula change

Students have also been pushing for changes in curricula to direct future job markets greenwards. Rowe has been involved with the US-based Change the Chamber group, of more than 100 student groups nationwide, working with environmental justice NGOs, community groups and other allied organisations.

It has created modules proposing changes to skills curricula and a free certificate course called Become an Environmental Changemaker. They have been pressing for more sustainability within business and government, and for students to be ready to tackle resulting green jobs.

“We empower young adults to move beyond doom and gloom, and get empowered and engaged in solutions while building their skills to create positive changes in our broader society,” said a Change the Chamber note.

The group has, for instance, met with governmental relations and sustainability professionals from corporations such as Lowe’s, Pfizer, Best Buy, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America and Honeywell “to influence their climate actions”.

While the group has criticised the US Chamber of Commerce, claiming it has obstructed progress towards reducing and mitigating the effects of climate change, Rowe said its engagement of business is important: “There are lots of young people out there who are very anti capitalism, who see it as profits over people and the planet.

“But they don’t understand the structure and potential of a sustainable economy – which could involve modified capitalism. That’s where the green economy can fit. It’s also where green jobs fit and thrive.”

Countering dystopian outlooks

Rowe stressed that she has never called for an end to economic growth as a path towards sustainability: “I’ve been an advocate for no growth of unsustainable products and processes.

“We have to educate to do the analysis and decide accordingly. We have to build the circular economy using technical, social and emotional learning. We have to look at how we can value things that don’t use resources, in a sustainable way, so we can have wonderful outcomes for individuals and the whole of society.”

Indeed, a pessimistic approach to the challenges of climate change is counterproductive, she said: “It creates apathy, and it disempowers people.” Rather, the question is how to build positive scenarios for the future.

“That is where curricula changes can really help, counteracting dystopian outlooks among students who may not understand the positive possibilities available. Any course can add a section envisaging sustainable scenarios for the future using their course concepts.

“Additionally, universities need to make business and policy courses available to all students to provide them with skills for broader change,” she said.

Also, universities should help teach people in non-green jobs how to be more sustainable at work, through sustainable procurement and energy conservation for example: “If you’re office staff, you’re often ordering materials. Look for green alternatives. Put up a sign, ‘Who’s interested in making what we do here greener?’” said Rowe.

“You can shift policies, you can shift processes, you can shift the organisation.”

Curricula change needed

For higher education institutions seeking to prepare students for an increase in tech jobs focused on green industries, for green entrepreneurship and environmental good practice, curricular change is needed, and there are resources available to deliver that change.

The US-based Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, for example, issued a guide on integrating sustainability across higher education curricula.

Its Key Competencies in Sustainability framework and modules support instructors wanting to integrate sustainability competencies into their courses “by identifying and developing curricular and pedagogical resources, resources for assessing student learning, and relevant examples of the scholarship of teaching and learning in this field”.

Rowe said every discipline has a significant role to play by integrating green issues and sustainability into their curricula, to boost green and sustainable employment: “Sometimes it’s a focus subject, like we’re going to have a section on psychology’s role in creating a greener and more sustainable future.”

And integrating these skills into apprenticeships, internships and volunteering can mean students come out better prepared than they would be just studying ideas in theory. “Educators need to see that,” said Rowe.