Reskilling the UK’s workforce for green careers might worsen social and regional inequalities because more affluent people are more likely to invest in training to equip them with improved career opportunities, one of the world’s leading education thinkers has warned.
Speaking at the International Green Skills Conference at Imperial College London, Andreas Schleicher, director of education and skills at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), said he feared efforts to support green skills could disproportionately benefit those who already had strong education outcomes, thereby entrenching inequality.
“People who have benefited so far from the green transition are in the high-skill sectors, which was also true for the digital transition,” Mr Schleicher told the forum, organised by Times Higher Education and the Department for Education. “If we do not reverse that, we will see more of this division.”
This potential disparity was already evident in patterns of lifelong learning, with executives and those with a higher level of credentials much more likely to consider retraining, Mr Schleicher explained.
