Towards just green and digital transitions through skills development

“Depending on how we introduce skills policies, we may either achieve a smooth and just transition towards greener and more digital economies, or we may suffer from consequences of both transitions,” said the ILO at an EESC hearing on “Competence and skills development in the context of a green and digital transition”. Investments in lifelong learning, strong policy coordination and social dialogue are needed to build our capacity so that everyone can reap the benefits of both transitions.

The digital and green transitions, as well as other drivers of change, form a complex web of factors which transform the way we work and learn. “Greening can benefit from this technology transition if clean technologies are targeted, such as decarbonisation measures,” said Olga Strietska-Ilina, Area Lead for Skills Strategies for Future Labour Markets at the ILO. “The same process may also create a space for the application of technologies and drive innovation.”

The ILO’s Global Employment Trends for Youth 2022 report projects that the green and digital transitions largely contribute to the increase of global employment by 2030. However, jobs growth will be predominantly driven by the care sector, as it is the most labour-intensive. The green transition makes the next largest contribution to employment, followed by the digital transition.

Strietska-Ilina discussed the impact of the green and digital transitions on employment and skills development. She argued that digital skills should be perceived as only a subset of the overall skills needed in digital economies. “To achieve a successful and just transition, we need a combination of very good foundational skills, social and emotional skills, cognitive skills, and a whole range of technical skills. Similarly, for the green transition a good combination of soft and hard skills is needed, and these go beyond the green sectors in its narrow meaning, but also include, for example, skills needed for plumbing, building or repair services,” she said. In terms of the impact on employment of greening the economy, most growth and turnover is expected at the middle skills level, and may compensate some job losses at this level arising from the digitalisation where the tendency is to substitute middle-skill jobs by technology.

Investments in reskilling and upskilling, and therefore lifelong learning and active labour market policy measures, have to be scaled up. Skills development may bring a lot of opportunities, such as efficiency and productivity gains, but also bear a cost. One of the main challenges is the increase of the digital divide between countries as well as within countries, including as the digital gender divide, especially in developing countries. In the least-developed countries, only 19% of women used the internet in 2020, compared to 86% in developed countries in 2019.

The green transition’s impact on gender shows that men will benefit more from future job-creation in the green economy. According to the 2019 ILO report “Skills for a greener future: a global view”, the best way of breaking this vicious circle is to bring more women into training for green jobs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified digitalization, thereby also impacting skills development. A survey conducted by the ILO in collaboration with UNESCO and the World Bank in early days of the pandemic, shows that despite the challenges with school closures and a sudden need to turn to distance and online learning with lack of pedagogical resources, absence of learning platforms and shortages in digital skills among teachers and learners, some rather impressive changes were observed. The pandemic has created an opportunity to promote and further mobilize human and financial resources for expanding distance learning at the EU and global level. “The challenge is now to mainstream multiple public-private partnerships, innovations in teaching and learning, and learning tools and resources to continue benefitting from them,” Strietska-Ilina said.

The ILO has established several guiding tools and materials to accommodate countries in switching to a greener and digitalised way of teaching and learning. One example is the Greening TVET and Skills Development Tool, which supports countries to mainstream skills for the green transition in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and skills development in a systemic and comprehensive manner, starting from skill needs identification, through the development and updating of competency standards and curricula, assessments, teachers’ training etc.

To ensure these just transitions, which are intertwined, very good policy coordination between skills development and lifelong learning policies, as well as other policies is required, together with strong social dialogue. The ILO expert also underscored the need to sensitize youth about the new occupations and skills required for these transitions. “Targeted measures must be created for disadvantaged groups, such as women and youth, so that they can develop these critical skills and uptake decent digitized and green jobs,” she concluded.

The findings from the hearing will feed into the EESC’s on Opinion on Competence and Skills Development in the Green and Digital Transition.