Trail blazer Green Deal providers lead the way on skills
Six organisations that are leading the way in preparing for the Green Deal scheme are to share their knowledge with the wider industry.
The bodies have been selected as ‘Green Deal skills exemplars’ by the Green Deal Skills Alliance (GDSA) – an alliance of three built environment sector skills councils: AssetSkills, CITB-ConstructionSkills and SummitSkills – to demonstrate how organisations can upskill their workforce or prepare their customers, to benefit from the Green Deal.Carefully selected to represent a range of public and private sector organisations, the exemplars were shortlisted based on their proposals put forward to the GDSA outlining their workforce development plans in preparation for the arrival of the government’s home energy efficiency scheme.
The six exemplars are:
· Association of Greater Manchester Authorities
· Carillion
· Kingfisher Group
· Severn Wye Energy Agency in partnership with Stroud District Council, Forest of Dean District Council, South Gloucestershire Council, and Wiltshire Council
· Scottish and Southern Electricity
· Yorkshire Energy Services
SummitSkills chief executive Keith Marshall OBE said, ‘With the launch of the government’s Green Deal now in sight, it’s important that we identify the best of the preparations that are being made across the built environment sector and share it with employers as widely as possibly. A key role of the Green Deal Skills Alliance is to share examples of good practice where we find them. We should learn as much as we can from these exemplars: forward looking businesses will find them of great value as they develop their future plans.’
CITB-ConstructionSkills CEO Mark Farrar said, ‘With our partners in the GDSA we are committed to helping the built environment sectors prepare and profit from the Green Deal scheme. These six exemplar organisations are an excellent example of how businesses and public bodies alike are being proactive and working to maximise the benefits of this opportunity.
‘The Green Deal is expected to create 65,000 jobs across the built environment for workers who possess the skills and gain accreditation. Our research indicates that many of the skills needed to deliver the work are already in the workforce, so for many people it will simply be a case of a minor upskill in order to get Green Deal accredited.
‘I would urge firms to visit our Cut the Carbon website and look into getting training and qualifications to profit from this scheme.’
Asset Skills CEO Sarah Bentley said, ‘This is an excellent collaborative project which captures the skills involved in most areas of the Green Deal supply chain. This includes those required to assess a building`s fabric and produce an Energy Performance Certificate to the ones needed to generate the Green Deal Advice Report.
‘Working together with our GDSA partners, we will aim to ensure the right skills are in place to help different occupations work together to deliver an effective Green Deal service. It will also be important to help us understand how different Green Deal Providers from retailers to local authorities are evolving to deliver energy efficiency.’
