The name Judy Ling Wong probably doesn’t yet mean much to most teachers working in further education. Wong, who is a poet, painter and environmentalist, is unlikely to have appeared on your radar. But her influence will soon be felt by apprenticeship providers across the country.

Wong, who is honorary president of the Black Environment Network, will be chairing the new Green Apprenticeships Advisory Panel, which was announced by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) in March.

The aim of the panel is to spearhead a drive to “put cleaner and greener apprenticeships front and centre of the UK’s recovery from Covid-19”, as part of the country’s pledge to hit net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Announcing the panel, Anna West, deputy director at IfATE, where it will be housed, said that “green jobs and opportunities are the future, and apprentices have a big role to play”. “The apprenticeships we will be developing are going to give people a chance to make a real tangible difference to our environment and make the world a better place,” she added.

How apprenticeships can help to tackle climate change

But what will this mean in practice for the work that goes on in the further education sector? What should providers expect from Wong and the rest of the advisory panel? And what might they need to do now to prepare?

According to Wong, the overarching aim of the panel is a simple one: to make existing apprenticeships greener, as well as identifying new apprenticeships in emerging green occupations. The panel has already identified priority sectors for this work, including energy, greener buildings, protecting the natural environment and the shift to zero-emission vehicles.

Wong says that she and her colleagues will be looking at each area in turn to find out how apprentices and providers can play their role in the drive to prioritise green jobs - a push that college leaders need to be ready for. “They need to really be on their toes about what is happening,” Wong says. “The government is pushed towards creating all these [green] jobs because we signed that legally to deliver net zero, so money’s got to go into it. It’s an exciting process.”

The sheer volume of green jobs that the government has committed to creating - Boris Johnson has pledged £12 billion to create and support up to 250,000 highly skilled green jobs in the UK by 2030 - means that the impact on apprenticeships is likely to be significant. But exactly what that impact will be remains to be seen, says Wong.

While she points out that there will be some colleges that are already “very aware” of the green agenda, “there will be other colleges that will really need to be brought into the picture, and they’re important [for the panel] to know because they know their local community - and we need that,” she continues.

“There are challenges. For example, there might be new green jobs [that are suited] to a particular area, and we might need colleges to really go in and provide [relevant new courses]. A lot of work is still being done [to establish] where the jobs might be, and what those jobs might be, so it’s very early days.”

It might be early days, but there is no question about the direction of travel for colleges - and we do at least have some idea of the type of apprenticeships that we could soon be seeing more of, how those apprenticeships might operate and the type of students who will want to pursue them.

In March, a report by environmental charity Friends of the Earth called for the government to invest just over £10 billion in creating 250,000 “green apprenticeships”, to be supported by a network of “national and regional centres of excellence for zero-carbon skills” at further education colleges.

The report cites renewable energy as one area ripe for the creation of apprenticeships, and singles out two colleges that are ahead of the game here: Furness College in Cumbria and Grimsby Institute in Lincolnshire, both of which partner with offshore wind company Ørsted to run three-year maintenance and operations engineering technician apprenticeships.

Luci Ord is head of business development at Furness College, and leads the Ørsted apprenticeship programme. The college currently has 12 Ørsted apprentices undertaking the three-year apprenticeships, she explains, and she wishes they could take more. “We started this apprenticeship in 2018 and have seen a steady rise in the number of applications, with a bumper crop of 320 applications for the 2021 intake,” she says. “There is a real recognition locally about the transition to greener energy, and people come to us because they want the skills to work in the turbine and offshore sector.

“At application stage, we see the interest in greener technology coming through from the students because they see the chance to make a difference through a career in wind power.”

These apprentices are coming from a variety of backgrounds, she says, from new school-leavers to those who have completed academic courses such as A levels, and even one who is combining study with a semi-professional rugby career. So, this diversity is something that other colleges will need to consider when planning their greener offers.

The college works closely with Grimsby Institute, in addition to working with local employers connected with the renewables industry. “We encourage green practices within all our apprenticeships and support projects and initiatives,” says Lucy Ottewell-Key, executive director for apprenticeships and partnerships at the institute, adding that apprenticeships within the renewables sector “are always very popular”.

Building green elements into all apprenticeships, not just those based in renewable energy, is also something to consider, then. And employers will likely be keen to help here, suggests Ottewell-Key.

“Organisations are becoming aware of the importance of environmental sustainability, and many learners of all ages have a vested interest, so it is important that as a provider we are supporting the green agenda throughout a programme of learning and development,” she says.

Apprenticeships should “prepare [people] for the next stage in their career”, she explains, and now, on the cusp of what the government is calling the green industrial revolution, that means “having a sound grasp of how industry can support environmental sustainability”.

Andrew Wren, principal and chief executive at Furness College, agrees, saying that “many of the skills needed in [green] industries are generic across many sectors, so colleges are well placed to offer broader skills training and incorporate specialist elements to meet the needs of the green industries and specific employers”.

He adds: “So, in addition to colleges benefiting, the green industries have much to gain from working with colleges.”

Back at the Green Apprenticeships Advisory Panel, Wong says she is keen for colleges to contribute to the development of new programmes - and one hands-on way they can do so is by joining the panel’s advisory community.

The IfATE Trailblazer groups, which design and update apprenticeships, are employer-led but there will be opportunities for colleges and other further education sector organisations to contribute, she explains. “The panel fully supports the employer-led model on how an apprenticeship is designed and kept up to date, and that is not going to change,” she says.

“But colleges and independent training providers will also have an incredibly important role to play in ensuring that they can provide the off-the-job training for these emerging apprenticeships and to deliver any training that they are doing in a more sustainable way; that is part of the green agenda that they will need to consider. We are determined to make the best possible use of colleges’ expertise.”

Chris Parr is a freelance journalist

This article originally appeared in the 11 June 2021 issue under the headline “How apprentices can energise the green revolution”