Green Jobs for Youth

1st April 2021

New initiative - Global Guidance for Education on Green Jobs: Connecting Higher Education and Green Opportunities for Planetary Health from UNEP's Youth and Education Alliance is designed to increase demand for green jobs in the workforce and help create a stronger supply of necessary green and environmental sustainability skills through education.

The goal of the guidance is to lead to a greener economy and provide better job opportunities for young people. This initiative consists of a top down effort via UNEP's Youth and Education Alliance and relevant ministries, as well as a bottom up effort via youth engagement and through pathways for connected implementation via enhancing education and employer connections. 

1.Top Down - UNEP (with other UN agencies) and relevant ministries are provided with a draft letter (open to customization for each country) to send out to high school and university/technical colleges. The letter will be valuable to chief academic officers, educators, youth and career advisors and university department chairs. The letter highlights: 

• The growth of green jobs 
• How to bring a green lens to any job/organization 
• Green jobs pathways (e.g. skills/educational/career pathways) 
• How students can get involved with green opportunities today (e.g. ways to include applied, real world projects in curricula as a high impact learning practice for undergraduate and Masters projects, and MA/MS/ PhD practical theses). 
• The need to include environmental and social sustainable development knowledge and skills in all majors so students become educated employees or employers, consumers, community members, and investors. 

2. Bottom up - Communications with youth networks on how they can ask governments and educational institutions for green jobs training and science-based green policies.

• Engagement with and expansion of existing initiatives (e.g. Teach the Future: Climate Crisis Education) 

3. Create pathways for connected implementation between SDG practitioners, employers in the green economy and the education institutions to: 

• Bring a green lens to all professions 
• Increase job placement of students 
• Improve quality of curricula to meet career pathway and employer needs 
• Connect students to practitioners for applied projects/research 
• Enhance green entrepreneurship

Find out more here.