Conference Agenda

As the world grapples to conceptualise green transitions, work and education systems have struggled to respond to the systemic and historical contradictions and barriers to change. Vocational education and training (VET) occupies a unique position at the intersection of both skills and occupation systems and there are clear indications of the need for more transformative and critical approaches to research that supports green transitions.

In this panel discussion we explore the dynamics of a multi-scalar approach to VET that takes account of the dynamics of a green transition from a multi-level, multi-actor, macro–meso–micro perspective. Drawing from diverse contexts, and methodological and theoretical domains the panel explores new ways of thinking about VET and the green transition. Each panellist will explore these transition dynamics through a focus on following questions:

1. What macro, meso, and micro trends and developments are emerging in conceptualising the green transition within VET in selected countries?
2. What challenges or gaps emerge in developing a multi-scalar conceptualisation of green transitions in VET?
3. What are the implications for VET practice and research?

The presentations, draw on empirical examples from a range of European and African cases:

• German transition to climate-neutrality: Bridging the gap between (macro) labor market scenario techniques and (micro) vocational teaching and learning processes in an emerging green hydrogen sector where green hydrogen production industries (and related skills and occupations) are required that do not yet exist (Niediek, 2023).

• South Africa and Uganda meso-level approach: Much work in social science research has concentrated on the macro or micro levels. Recent work on social ecosystems for skills (Ramsarup, McGrath and Lotz-Sisitka, 2023; Spours and Grainger, 2023) develops a meso level approach, nested within a wider multi-scalar approach to skills for (just) green transitions.

• Spain: methodological opportunities and limitations in multidimensional analyses. Analysing alignment between green labour market demand and the provision of green occupations by VET systems (European Commission and JRC, 2022). Considering the role of innovation dynamics (Fontana et al., 2023), employment patterns (Fernández Gómez & Larrea Basterra, 2022) and the development of green occupations within VET providers (Lucas et al., 2018).

• South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Mauritius: Beyond skills supply and demand in the low-carbon transition. Mechanisms and tools have emerged for attempting to understand intermediate skills demand across the economy and to translate this into TVET provision planning, however, implementation remains fragmented. A critique of the metaphor of ‘supply’ and ‘demand’ inidicates where it can divert attention away from the broader systemic transitions needed to catalyse a low carbon transition.

• UK aid for skills: contracting out the green skills dilemma (South Africa, Uganda). Private sector contractors play a growing role in UK aid for education and skills. A political economy critique (Russon, 2023) questions whether and how ‘skills for growth’ narratives aligned with donor interests can effectively engage with the macro-micro-meso dynamics of the green transition agenda.

• Europe - Driving institutional coherence in the transition: VET providers are key actors in responding to the challenges we outline. A central methodological issue, therefore, becomes how VET providers learn from each other regarding promising responses to a rapidly changing environment. Initiatives worth exploring here are the European Commission's Centres of Vocational Excellence programme and UNESCO-UNEVOC's Bridging Innovation in Learning and Training project (Loveder, 2021).

The structural change required for the green transition is dependent on a good understanding of the policies, actors, institutions and institutional arrangements that comprise the skills formation system. This panel advances knowledge on the systemic analysis of green skills and green occupations and the importance of identifying the contradictions and historical challenges in conceptualising green transitions in VET.