Work, Education & Training
As the global economy changes and responds to the impacts of climate change and the need to restore and protect the natural environment, and to the continuing impacts of technology, work will also continue to change.
The shift to renewable energy needed to limit temperature rise to below 2 degrees C has the potential to create 18m jobs globally. The transition to sustainable agriculture practices also will require new skills and the need for new forms of education and training.
The idea of a Circular Economy that limits use of raw materials and waste by repairing, reusing and recycling goods would see jobs decrease in extractive industries and manufacturing and increase in the areas of repair, reprocessing and renewables.
New jobs will emerge in sustainable industries such as biochar, replacing the need for fossil-fuel-based fertilisers; bioenergy production from organic waste sources; the emerging seaweed industry producing human and animal food and fertilisers while regenerating waterways and reducing greenhouse gasses; and renewable energy generation from solar, wind, tidal and geothermal sources.
New jobs in a decarbonised economy will require new skills - in clean energy production, energy efficiency, regenerative agriculture, environmental management and services. These jobs will need particular types of applied learning and on-the-job training, similar to other skilled trade positions. They need to be unionised, with proper pay and conditions.
Southern Gippsland has the natural assets to make it a leading centre of transition to a low-carbon economy. New and remade existing industries can attract, train and employ workers in new jobs. The scale of potential for new industries in Southern Gippsland could also attract training centres of excellence, producing workers with highly valued transferable skills for renewable and sustainable infrastructure industry across the nation, making the region an exporter of skilled workers for the low-carbon economy.
Identifying industries and jobs that fit local conditions, needs and opportunities, along with the training and education needs will be the task of the Work, Education and Training Working Group. Along with how new and existing jobs can be well remunerated and secure, which raises questions of workplace organising and worker power.
