Upskilling the UK for a Future Ready Economy

This is an online event.

Audience

This event is open to both members and non-members and will be particularly useful for HR and sustainability leaders.

Overview

Learn how businesses can build the green skills the UK needs for an inclusive, future-ready economy. Hear insights from BITC’s Green Skills Lab and Future Ready Communities pilots, and explore how businesses can prepare their workforce, young people, and communities for the jobs of tomorrow.

About the Event

The UK’s transition to a fair and future-ready economy depends on whether people have the right skills to thrive in rapidly changing industries. Green skills are increasingly essential across all sectors, yet many employers struggle to build a strong skills pipeline.

This webinar will share practical insights from Business in the Community’s Green Skills Lab and our Future Ready Communities programme. You will hear examples of how businesses are embedding green skills into their workforce planning, and how place-based pilot projects are helping young people and underserved communities to gain skills that will prepare them to access jobs.

Drawing on BITC’s experience over the last few years, we will explore:

• What green skills are and why they matter.

• How employers can develop future-ready skills within their organisation.

• How businesses can invest beyond their own workforce to prepare the talent of the future.

• The partnerships, behaviours and actions needed to support thriving people and thriving places.

This session will provide practical steps for any organisation preparing for the future of work.

Speakers for the event include:

Ruth Watson, Founder of EcologicoUK and Eco Connect

Ruth Watson is the founder of EcologicoUK and Eco Connect North East CIC, based in Teesside. She leads community focused work that makes sustainable living more accessible, through refill and low waste retail, workshops and community events, and a mobile eco hub that takes refill and circular economy activity into local communities.

EcologicoUK is the delivery partner for Business in the Community’s supported project at Dormanstown and Grangetown Primary Schools in Middlesbrough, helping pupils set up and run closed loop refill stations as well as a food waste farm shop as a young enterprise model that enables development of green skills while supporting families with low cost food and household essentials.

Max Finney, Senior Sustainability Manager, Shoosmiths

Max is the Senior Sustainability Manager, responsible for all elements of Shoosmiths’ sustainability programme including carbon reductions in line with the firm’s net zero targets, social impact through philanthropy, volunteering and pro bono and ensuring effective governance and accountability.

Prior to joining Shoosmiths, Max led sustainability strategy development and implementation across a variety of public and private industries including finance, healthcare, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Max has a Degree in Physical Geography and a Masters Degree in Carbon Management from the University of Edinburgh, as well as having completed an apprenticeship in Leadership with Imperial College London.

Background

BITC’s Future Ready Economy report argues that the UK will only achieve a fair, resilient and competitive economy if businesses invest in people, skills and places, while operating within planetary boundaries. Our work has found that access to good, future-ready jobs is distributed unevenly, with some communities at risk of being left behind as industries change. This webinar builds on those findings by focussing specifically on how businesses can support the development of green skills within their organisation and also across their communities.

Booking and contact details and further information

• Contact events@bitc.org.uk for any further questions.
• Full joining instructions will be sent before the event.

Find out how your organisation can become a member of Business in the Community