Background

Green jobs are decent jobs in any economic sector that reduce consumption of energy and raw materials; limit greenhouse gas emissions; minimize waste and pollution; and protect and restore ecosystems- bringing down the environmental impact to a level that is sustainable.

Within national development frameworks, countries in the Asia-Pacific region have expressed together their commitment to address the issue of climate change from the national to the enterprise level. Policies, good practices and training programs need to be developed to help employers and workers to achieve sustainable production and promote a green workplace that provides better decent work opportunities.

A just and inclusive transition to a greener economy requires focus on skills. But already, studies show that skills shortages are constraining the transition to a green economy, in preparing for new occupations and in changing the skills profiles of some occupations. Skills are needed both for the newly emerging jobs and for the adjusted or “greened” existing jobs. Without a suitably trained workforce, a smooth and effective transition will be impossible. The use of environmentally sustainable and clean technology requires skills in technology application, adaptation and maintenance. Environmental awareness needs to be part of education and training at all levels. Countries need strategies that combine both environmental and skills development objectives and policies. Effective social dialogue with the social partners and coordination among related stakeholders and training providers will be key for the success of these strategies.

The green transition will generate far more demand for upgraded skills in established occupations as well as create brand new occupations. The core skills will be important and identified as necessary for green jobs to include environmental awareness, waste management and energy efficiency together with the willingness to learn about sustainable development and leadership skills.

Responding to current and emerging concerns on skills development for green jobs, the ILO/Japan Skills Programme focuses on the theme: Skills for Green Jobs covering the year 2015-2018. This Regional workshop is part of the second year activity, focusing on sectoral approach to skills for green jobs. The ILO has conducted a number of researches as well as implemented Projects in the region which highlight the importance of the sectoral approach to skills for green jobs. These were in tourism, building and energy sectors. Focusing on prioritized sectors can support the creation of sustainable enterprises and create decent work opportunities for all, especially for those who need it most.

With green structural change, it is anticipated that a number of sectors may require extensive restructuring and therefore, training and other active labour market programmes may be necessary to avoid displacements. Key issues like investing in the skills that will be needed for a low-carbon global economy and policies to handle the employment adjustments in different economic sectors need to be addressed. In addition, implementation of green structuring measures will depend on how training and re-training opportunities can be made available to the existing workforce and new entrants of the labour market as well as with the affected sectors.

The sectors affected by green structural change (and retraining needs) are agriculture, forestry and fisheries; extracting industries and fossil-fuel energy generation; and emissions intensive manufacturing. Industries that are likely to grow and retraining needs are renewable energies; green building and retrofitting; transport; recycling and waste management; and water resource management. Skills shortages already pose a major barrier to transitions to green economies and green job creation.

In Asia and the Pacific, tourism, agriculture and construction are among those key sectors for green job creation, for instance. Tourism is significant and the main contributing sector to the world’s economy. Asia- Pacific region is the world’s second most visited destination and predicted to be the fastest growing in the next few decades . Meanwhile, Asia is the largest regional construction market worldwide as well as the major area for intensive subsistence farming. These major sectoral priorities have undoubtedly great impact towards global economy, labour market and environmental sustainability.

Approach

The Regional Workshop will be tripartite and will focus on skills for green job in specific sectors affected by green structural change the needed interventions. It will promote a social dialogue for sharing of participating countries’ experiences in their selected sectoral priorities.

Good practices will be identified and shared among the participating countries. Recommendations and lessons learned from the Workshop will feed into the follow-up national activities.

Participants will be encouraged to implement and continue to develop their own internal policies and practices after the workshop is completed. Knowledge sharing and good practices on sectoral approaches to skills for green jobs will be documented and distributed to all other partner organizations via the ILO Asia-Pacific Skills & Employability website.

Further, the ILO/Japan Skills Programme is a forum where Member States will be able to gain information and good practices from Japan's experiences in the field of skills and employability. The ILO/Japan Skills Programme promotes close cooperation with all the tripartite partners and encourage social dialogue in all its skills and policy development among the countries in the region.

Objectives

This Regional Workshop is designed to provide opportunities for productive exchange of information and knowledge on integrating skills for green jobs in the selected sectoral priorities. The Workshop will promote social dialogue for sharing of participating countries’ experiences in their selected sectoral priorities. It will also discuss on identification of training and other active labour market programme to avoid displacements, skills and occupational needs in the proposed sectors and integrating green technology components in skill standards development for the identified sector.

Workshop Structure and Methodology

The workshop will consist of a number of technical sessions, panel discussions, including country presentations, and technical working group sessions. It will discuss skills for green job, knowledge sharing, capacity strengthening, awareness raising and good practices sharing with focus on the specific sectors affected by green structural changes.

After an introduction of skills for green jobs, the workshop sessions will be organized under the following sub-themes:

• Green jobs, skills needs, and sector(s) affected by structural change
• Issues and challenges
• Skills and occupational needs for green jobs by identified sector(s)
• Integrating green technology components in skills standards development
• Country good practices on skills for green jobs: sectoral approach

Recommendations and lessons learned from this regional workshop will feed into ongoing national activities and follow-up by ILO offices in the region.

Participation

This year, tripartite delegations from the following countries will be invited: India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. Participants should be senior level staff of the Ministry/agencies/organizations, who are involved in the regulation and/or implementation of skills policy and skills standard development. The participation of women in the Workshop is strongly encouraged and supported.