Welsh Assembly Government and businesses working together to shape the green business environment

Members of the Green Business Skills Forum met with the Minister for Environment Sustainability and Housing and the Deputy Minister for Housing and Regeneration to outline the importance of green skills in helping Wales through its economic recovery.

Convened by Business in the Community Wales, the Green Business Skills Forum has been in operation since March 2010 and is seeking to maximise sustainable job growth related to the Welsh Assembly Government’s green agenda, specifically looking at the green skills agenda in the Heads of the Valleys. 

It’s been a very positive experience for Business in the Community to bring together committed partners across business, government, education and the third sector in the Green Business Skills Forum who all share a common interest in maximising the benefits to business and wider society."

Members of the Forum met to inform the Ministers present of how working in partnership and early engagement can improve the procurement process.  The Forum highlighted to the Ministers the opportunities of creating sustainable local jobs and how the group would work in partnership with the Welsh Assembly Government to develop best practice in developing a more efficient procurement process. 

Forum members present gave case study examples to the Ministers outlining where the procurement process is currently working well – and not so well in some cases. 

Following the meeting Sharanne Basham Pyke, seconded from BT Wales and leading the Forum for Business in the Community, noted:

“It’s been a very positive experience for Business in the Community to bring together committed partners across business, government, education and the third sector in the Green Business Skills Forum who all share a common interest in maximising the benefits to business and wider society. 

"We have demonstrated today the issues that businesses face as part of the procurement processes and we have offered a number of innovative suggestions to the Ministers present as to how the Green Business Skills Forum can support the procurement process in the future”.

Minister for the Environment, Sustainability and Housing Jane Davidson said that the meeting had been an excellent opportunity to engage with private sector business in supporting the green skills agenda.  She said:

 “The Welsh Assembly Government is committed to ensuring that businesses throughout Wales are able to take full advantage of the opportunities associated with our move to low carbon living.

"Our new strategic energy performance investment programme 'Arbed', for example, will provide £30m of funding for green homes, green skills and green jobs. It will ensure the energy efficiency of existing housing stock in some of the most deprived parts of Wales is upgraded, whilst also providing local employment and skills opportunities."

The Deputy Minister for Housing and Regeneration Jocelyn Davies AM echoed the support of the Environment Minister, adding:

“The Welsh Government is supporting a wide range of initiatives that provide opportunities to develop green skills as well as improving homes and communities across Wales.

“For example, our JobMatch scheme that helps people back into work through training and employment support works with the Britsh Gas Green Skills Training Centre to train people, who are then employed to improve homes under the Heads of the Valleys Low Carbon Zone and Arbed initiatives. This is an excellent example of how we are equipping people with skills that will help them into sustained employment over the long term as well as helping to regenerate communities. “

The Forum will now reflect on today’s discussions and take forward the opportunities to work more closely with Government on procurement practices as well as in developing the green skills opportunities across Wales.  In summary, Chair of the Forum and CEO of Wales and West Utilities Graham Edwards, concluded:

“The opportunities that the low carbon zone is bringing to the Heads of the Valleys are immense and offer considerable scope for businesses to grow and diversify, and creating jobs and opportunities for local people.  But in order for this programme to succeed in meeting long terms social objectives, and for businesses to develop sustainably, addressing the skills gap is vital”.