Colleges Scotland and ESP welcomed the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity, Lorna Slater MSP, to our offices in Stirling today (Thursday, 2 February 2023) to discuss the importance of Green Skills.

Colleges have a vital role in tackling the climate emergency and delivering Scotland’s ambitions to achieve net-zero.

Working in partnership with employers, colleges are training people in everything from offshore windfarms to electric vehicles. The college sector delivers the world-class skills, upskilling and re-skilling we need now, and that will be needed in the future, as access to lifelong learning becomes an absolute requirement for every worker.

Scotland needs skilled workers to construct and maintain onshore and offshore wind farms, to maintain electric vehicles, to install domestic and industrial heat pumps and solar systems and to meet the dramatic changes brought about by emerging technologies from machine learning to artificial intelligence.

Colleges are focused on the government’s Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan, the National Strategy for Economic Transformation and the Just Transition to Net Zero. To deliver on these, colleges will continue to work collaboratively with industry and to encourage the investment needed to supply the pipeline of skilled students of all ages.

Success from those partnerships can make Scotland a world-leader in green technology and provide the well-paid jobs needed for economic recovery.