By Eva Kagiri-Kalanzi, Head of Programmes and Partnerships
16 March 2023
Just before joining Scientia Scripta, I worked as a consultant on a project with GIZ and VET Toolbox to improve Vocational Education and Training (VET) for inclusive economic growth, social development, and decent job creation.
Our work presented a dashboard and a toolkit that showcase good practice examples of approaches, tools, processes, and initiatives that contribute to developing the skills needed to achieve the green transformation.
I am very proud to have been part of this project. It is supporting change at a systems level in countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, South and East Asia, and Latin America. The UK is benefiting too, through creating business opportunities and building the capacity and networks of organisations and individuals.
The toolkit is divided into eight approaches, with multiple examples of projects in each. These approaches describe what is being done right now on green skills and how the approach contributes to achieving the “green transformation”.
The dashboard maps projects from VET Toolbox partners that contribute to developing green skills and becoming more sustainable. Projects include a wide range of context-specific examples and initiatives on green transformation.
But what are “green skills” and why are they so important?
There is a global sense of urgency in addressing climate change, which means rethinking the way we live and work. To implement this “green transformation”, we need to update existing jobs and develop new occupations in two categories: technical green skills and transversal (soft) green skills.
Technical green skills are needed in existing occupations (e.g. energy efficiency in construction, sustainable farming or waste recycling expert) and in new jobs such as solar panel technician, green hydrogen engineer or sustainable fashion designer. Transversal green skills include teamwork, problem-solving, disruptive thinking, embracing diversity and inclusion, and systems thinking.
Self assessment
Building on my experience from this work, I am now the Scientia Scripta consultant on a project funded by the British Council. In collaboration with Swiss NGO and social enterprise Paeradigms, we are in the final stages of developing a self-assessment tool for technical VET systems. We expect to complete the work in the coming weeks – check out our company LinkedIn page for updates!
Access VET Toolbox resources
VET Toolbox is a partnership of leading European development agencies – British Council (UK), Enabel (Belgium), Expertise France (France), GIZ (Germany), LuxDev (Luxembourg) and AFD (France).
Co-funded by the European Union and by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), VET Toolbox provides eligible countries with targeted expertise, grant funding, tools and advice to improve the effectiveness of national vocational education and training (VET) reforms to respond to labour market needs and enhance employability for all.
