This report explored green jobs and skills development for people from disadvantaged groups in 10 European cities. The study identifies relevant occupations, sectors, training opportunities, and interventions to help support people into green jobs.

Green jobs and skills development for disadvantaged groups

Joanna Hofman, Michaela Bruckmayer, Katrin Feyerabend, Simon Larmour, Mark Reed, Lydia Lymperis

Contributors: Giovanni Amodeo, Frederico Cardoso, Sam Cole, Megan Hughes, Giulia Lanfredi, Mafalda Pardal, Pamina Smith

ResearchPublished Oct 26, 2022

Cover: Green jobs and skills development for disadvantaged groups
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Includes Case Study: Île-de-France, France; Case Study: Ruhr Valley, Germany; Case Study: Berlin, Germany; and more

This study addresses the gap in evidence on employability of people from disadvantaged groups in the context of the greening of the economy. We focus in particular on people with low qualifications (i.e. those with at most a lower secondary qualification (level 2 or below in the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED)). However, when looking at job opportunities for this group, we extend the scope to jobs requiring medium-level (ISCED 4) qualifications (ISCED 4), as these could be accessible for people with low qualifications with additional education, training, or work experience and help them break the cycle of poverty and disadvantage. The study also provides insights about the facilitators and barriers to green employment for other disadvantaged groups, including but not limited to women, young people and others. The study focuses on 10 ten European cities and regions across five European countries — France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Key Findings

  • People with low qualifications need help accessing further education, training or gain work experience to bread the range of suitable green job opportunities available to them.
  • Green skills do not seem to play a major role in job advertisements today, but they are likely to gain on importance in the future.
  • There is a need for more targeted (and orchestrated) action from the relevant stakeholders to make sure that people who face disadvantages, including those with low qualifications, do not miss out on the green transition.
  • The identified interventions form a useful repository of practices but their effectiveness needs to be examined through robust evaluations.

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RAND Style Manual
Hofman, Joanna, Michaela Bruckmayer, Katrin Feyerabend, Simon Larmour, Mark Reed, and Lydia Lymperis, Green jobs and skills development for disadvantaged groups, RAND Corporation, RR-A1603-1, 2022. As of October 6, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1603-1.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Hofman, Joanna, Michaela Bruckmayer, Katrin Feyerabend, Simon Larmour, Mark Reed, and Lydia Lymperis, Green jobs and skills development for disadvantaged groups. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2022. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1603-1.html.
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The research described in this report was sponsored by JPMorgan Chase and conducted by RAND Europe.

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