BOOM IN GREEN JOBS BUT LACK OF CANDIDATES
3.9 million new green workers will be needed within the next five years. Young people and companies are calling for more training and specialisation to arrive in time for the ecological transition.
Recently, an Almalaurea survey of 222,000 university graduates, 78.9 per cent of all graduates in 2022, highlighted how young people are clamouring for more environmental training in their academic careers.
After all, Greta Thunberg herself said at the Milan Youth Climate Conference two years ago that green jobs were needed to address the climate crisis. And ten years earlier, in 2012, 1,400 young people, children and young adults between the ages of 10 and 24, from 120 countries all over the world, had gathered in Bandung, Indonesia, in preparation for the Rio+20 environmental conference, and had made it clear that their future would be in the green economy and green jobs or not.
ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY TOPICS
Graduates rate the level of in-depth study of environmental sustainability issues addressed during compulsory or optional courses as insufficient.
Source: "Graduates and environmental sustainability", Almalaurea, 2023
But the young people interviewed by Almalaurea also stated that the current education is not sufficient. On the other hand, this also emerges from the most recent data of the Excelsior Information System, by Unioncamere and Anpal, which show that the Italian labour market, between 2023 and 2027, will require almost 2.4 million employed people to have green skills at least at an intermediate level and more than 1.5 million at a high level.
The demand for green skills will therefore cover 65% (intermediate level) and 41% (high level) of the entire projected employment requirement.
The problem is that green jobs are harder to find: estimates suggest that more than half, 52.6 per cent, will be missing.
PLANNED ENTERPRISE ENTRIES IN 2023 BY MAJOR OCCUPATIONAL GROUP AND RECRUITMENT DIFFICULTY
Source: Unioncamere-ANPAL, Excelsior Information System, 2023
Generally speaking, there is a shortage of new workers in almost every field (the general average is around 41%, high but lower than the hunger for green skills).
On the one hand, there is the denatality phenomenon that makes the absolute number of candidates smaller and smaller year by year, and on the other hand there is a historical mismatch between supply and demand that has always been difficult to bridge: companies and aspiring workers struggling to meet.
There is, however, a third phenomenon, which the 222,000 graduates of the Almalaurea survey clearly highlight: a defect in the training offer.
Which, mind you! does not only concern the university offer. Even the ITS Academies are not enough.
"Possession of green skills," Unioncamere explains, "is considered fundamental for recruitment regardless of the level of education: the highest demand is observed for personnel with a higher technological education (84.8% of entries with ITS are required) and for university graduates (82.8%), but demand also remains high for those with a secondary and/or post-secondary qualification (81.9%) or a professional qualification and/or diploma (78.6%). Among the degree courses that are associated with a higher demand for green skills are civil engineering and architecture, industrial engineering, chemical-pharmaceutical engineering, other engineering courses, biological sciences and biotechnology and earth sciences. Among ITS, green skills are most in demand in the areas of innovative technologies for cultural goods and activities, fashion, energy efficiency and sustainable mobility."
We must therefore act on two fronts: reducing the mismatch between supply and demand and increasing-improving the supply of education. Only in this way will we arrive on time at the rendezvous with a true and effective ecological transition.
TOP 10 PROFESSIONS FOR WHICH APTITUDE FOR ENERGY SAVING AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IS MOST IN DEMAND IN 2023 WITH A HIGH DEGREE OF IMPORTANCE (% OF TOTAL ENTRIES)
Professions with at least 4,000 total entries in 2023 are considered.
Source: Unioncamere-ANPAL, Excelsior Information System, 2023
GREEN SKILLS REQUIRED BY COMPANIES BY UNIVERSITY IN 2023 (% OF TOTAL ENTRIES)
Addresses with at least 1,000 total entries in 2023 are represented.
Source: Unioncamere-ANPAL, Excelsior Information System, 2023
Recently, a report by Unioncamere and Almalaurea, 'Graduates and Work', highlighted how young people are clamouring for more environmental training in their academic careers.
In short.
The same data collected by Almalaurea through a survey involving more than two hundred thousand graduates say this: "The evaluation expressed, with regard to the level of in-depth study of issues related to environmental sustainability, is insufficient overall (an average of 5.0 out of 10) for both first and second level graduates".
Slightly more critical with respect to the level of in-depth study of such topics are women (4.8 compared to 5.2 for men) who, it should be noted, dealt with them less frequently during their studies. However, it is important to emphasise that graduates who have dealt with such issues require more in-depth study of environmental sustainability topics (average at 6.5 on a scale of 1 to 10).
In this respect, no major differences can be detected between first and second level, while it is particularly women and STEM graduates who want to delve more deeply into these topics (6.6 and 6.7 respectively).
>> DISCOVER THE GREEN JOBS&SKILLS PROJECT <<
An article by Marco Gisotti
