Introduction

As an established environmental charity with over 130 employees working collectively to create a greener, fairer and stronger future for Greater Manchester, our workforce has a diverse range of green skills.

Our teams are operational within a number of different areas of the Green Economy from conservation, landscape design and environmental education to energy efficiency, retrofit and sustainable business consultancy. In addition, social justice is at the heart of our organisational values and we strive for equity and justice throughout all of our work.

We are working to create inclusive pathways into green careers – delivering local provision and targeting training at under-represented groups – to ensure that everyone can access the opportunities associated with the transition to a low carbon economy. In our 2023-2026 strategy, we outlined our ambition to upscale our green skills provision and create dedicated training facilities that offer advanced training opportunities within the Green Economy.

We’re excited to share that we have made significant progress towards this goal, developing our in-house expertise and widening our range of Level 2 and Level 3 vocational training courses in growing areas of the Green Economy.

Read on to find out what we’ve been up to:


Green Skills Area 1: Energy Adviser Academy

The first cohort of our Energy Adviser Training Academy, funded by the Cadent Foundation programme, has been a great success, with the second cohort scheduled to begin soon.

Several of the Advisors are now working as Groundwork Green Doctors, helping support more people to live warm and well in their homes.

In addition, this autumn, we’ll be launching a third cohort funded through the GMCA Skills Bootcamp contract, which will enable us to become an approved NEA training provider for the City & Guilds accredited Level 3 Energy Awareness qualification.

This training programme has been extended to include an accredited module to understand causes of condensation, mould and damp and how to identify, remedy and treat it.


Green Skills Area 2: Natural Environment

With the successful appointment of our new Green Skills Tutor, we’re now well underway with our 2024 natural environment training programme, with learning modules being delivered for our Trainee Ranger team working on the Medlock Valley Restoration Project ensuring a skilled workforce delivering nature based solutions within the Medlock valley.

Our ambition is to develop a programme of training courses (delivered in-house and to partners) which provide practical skills to implement and maintain nature based solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change and increase biodiversity in urban environments, these will include:

  • Sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS)
  • Natural flood risk management measures
  • Urban wildflower meadow creation, maintenance and seed collection
  • Woodland creation and management
  • Urban greening and cooling – green roofs and walls

We’re also in discussions with partners about new and exciting partnership projects which integrate climate-resilience, ensuring we’re not only conserving the natural world but future-proofing it.


Green Skills Area 3: Retrofit Training

We continue to deliver multi-skills construction training to unemployed people in Greater Manchester through the GMCA Skills Bootcamp contract, including within prison settings. We include retrofit modules and accredited training including Carbon Literacy within provision as standard, to ensure the workforce is prepared for the evolving built environment and an increased need for retrofitted properties.

Our Green Start programme at HMP Forest Bank and HMP Styal has supported over 75 people to gain new qualifications and gain employment in the construction upon release.


Want to help us progress our Green Skills ambitions?

Partnership is part of our DNA so we’d love to hear from any organisations who would like to work with us to create a workforce for the future.

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