Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee

Recommendation 24

Third Report - Green Jobs Published 25 Oct 2021 Paragraph 102
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We recommend that environmental sustainability be included across all primary and secondary courses delivered through the National Curriculum and across A Level courses. Teachers should be supported to deliver this, with teacher training and continuous professional development. We recommend that the Department for Education consult all relevant stakeholders during the 2021/22 academic year on the delivery of this recommendation.

From: Environmental Audit Committee, Third Report - Green Jobs (HC 75), paragraph 102, 25 October 2021

Government response

The government responded to the whole report on 20 January 2022 (deadline 25 December 2021).

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government welcomes the Committee's focus on green jobs and skills, points to its Net Zero Strategy and a new Green Jobs Delivery Group, and in places declines to set out the requested plans, costings or measures.

  • A Green Jobs Delivery Group will include ministers from BEIS, Defra, DfE, DWP and DfT alongside an industry co-chair, with further detail "in the new year".
  • On indicative costings for green jobs actions, it says further allocations depend on ongoing policy development, so "it is not possible to set these out to the Committee at this point".
  • On a module on environmental sustainability in every apprenticeship and T Level, it says "we do not believe that a generic sustainability module across every occupational standard is appropriate". Sustainability elements are included "where occupationally relevant".
  • On the Careers Strategy, it says it "currently do[es] not plan to update" it, as it has been superseded by the Skills for Jobs white paper.

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