Huge variety of greener skills means workforces and businesses can be future proof

Thousands of residents and businesses will benefit from new green skills and qualifications – thanks to funding from the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).

Achieving the ambition to be carbon neutral by 2041 is a huge challenge, and the WMCA is using its £130m adult education budget to make sure local people have the skills needed to benefit from the green industrial revolution.

Now that one in four cars sold are electric or hybrid, the training includes supporting people to gain skills in electric vehicle maintenance. Courses are running for adults in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Coventry and Warwickshire. On top of that, residents of Birmingham and Dudley are learning how to install vehicle charging points.

Other green skills include retrofitting people’s homes to make them more environmentally friendly, with BMet, Dudley, Solihull, North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire colleges and the Black Country Training Group training unemployed people to secure jobs.

Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands, said: “It is absolutely critical that we get local people the skills they need to move into these jobs – particularly at a time when many have been left out of work or are fearing for their future because of the pandemic.

“From skilled electric vehicle mechanics, as the Government bans the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, to heating engineers as more than 240,000 homes need retrofitting across the West Midlands, the WMCA will work with its partners to get people trained and into work.”

To find out how the WMCA is helping local people gain access to these training opportunities, visit https://beta.wmca.org.uk/what-we-do/productivity-and-skills or contact your local further education college.