College leaders plan the future of green skills across London

Over 40 principals and senior leaders came together this week to learn more about the growing skills demand in the green industries – and what needs to be done to address this. 

This event is one of many activities being led by London South East Colleges, in its role as lead of the Local London Green Skills and Jobs Partnership.  

A DfE-funded green skills project, this collaboration involves 13 FE colleges, 11 Local Authorities and over 30 employers across the Local London region (North East and South East London). Its aim is to improve green skills provision and training to meet the needs of this rapidly expanding sector. 

Today’s training event was for college representatives from all partner colleges. Green consultants engaged to work on the project – Just Ask Scarlett and Crystal Associates – delivered presentations and facilitated roundtable discussions about the green economy. 

Leading industry consultants, Crystal Associates presented findings from their work, which involved analysing current provision on offer across the partner organisations. Suggestions were made about how green skills provision could be strengthened across the region. 

Speaking to attendees, Mark O’Reilly, Managing Director at Just Ask Scarlett, said: 

“It’s exciting to be working with the largest consortium of green skills providers in the UK. It feels like we have a moment in time opportunity to do something game-changing.  

 
“Developing the skilled workforce needed to help London in leading the world in delivering city-state scale sustainability objectives.  

“Now we have to act.” 

London South East Colleges’ Louise Wolsey, Group Chief Strategy Officer, added: 

“This innovative partnership of colleges, employers and Local Authorities is absolutely crucial to ensuring we can all meet the skills demands of this exciting industry.  

“There are so many job opportunities available for people across our local communities and we want to make these are fully accessible to everyone who is interested in a green career. 

“We are grateful for everyone’s involvement in today’s event and look forward to further activities in the coming months.” 

Newham College’s Green Curriculum Lead, Glen Lambert, attended the session and added: 

“It is clear that a greener future for us all is on the horizon. The Construction and Built environment sector is key to this vision and a catalyst to help achieve the UK’s net zero targets.  

“This project and the collaborations forged between key stakeholders such as colleges, employers and Local Authorities is critical to ensuring we can provide the most relevant training and develop the skilled workforce needed in this sector. We cannot work in isolation; we can only achieve this together. 

“Continuing to build on the success of this project we need to ensure our partnerships are sustained and we look forward to playing our role in this.” 

Local London Green Skills and Jobs Partnership comprises the following colleges:

• London South East Colleges 
• New City College 
• Newham College 
• Barnet and Southgate College 
• Waltham Forest College 
• Barking and Dagenham College 
• Capital City College Group
• Capel Manor College 
• New Vic 6th Form College 
• Shooters Hill 6th Form 
• Leyton College 6th Form 
• St George Monoux College 
• Lewisham College