Power Letters 2024: Preparing students for ‘green collar’ jobs

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As we look back on a very successful COP28, I am conscious of the need for universities to respond to climate change. Not simply in the usual way – developing research that aims to address the climate challenge – which we already do a lot of, leading the UK’s industrial decarbonisation research. No, what I am acutely aware of after COP28 is the need to train our students for the millions of green jobs that are going to be the result of the commitment to phase out fossil fuels, that was the most talked about event in the world this month.

The sheer number of participants at COP28 – 65,000 participants, compared with 36,000 in Sharm el-Sheikh the year before (and that number was greatly added to by support staff who did not officially register) – should give us all an indication of the direction of travel.

As Deloitte explained in a 2022 report, a new category of workers is emerging: the “green collar” workforce.

From 2015 to 2021, the proportion of “green talent” rose by 38.5 per cent, increasing from 9.6 per cent to 13.3 per cent. By some estimates, more than 300 million additional green-collar jobs might be created by 2050. But what do those jobs look like?

Importantly, they will not just be in the laboratory. During COP28, we hosted a ‘Climate Hub’ where companies too small for the green zone exhibited their technology, and I was struck by how many of them were expanding by staffing up with, for example, distribution and supply chain managers and finance directors, as much as with scientists. To get the innovation in our labs, and those in other universities, out to the world to provide solutions, all sorts of skills will be needed.

UAE to take the lead in building green workforce

The UAE will be at the forefront of developing the green-collar workforce. We are privileged to have a campus in Dubai, one of five campuses that operate globally, allowing students to transfer seamlessly between them each semester and offering the chance for staff to live and work in any of our campuses, knowing they are part of one global team.

In January 2023, Sheikh Mohammed, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai, officially launched the Dubai Economic Agenda, known as D33. This sets out a plan to double the size of Dubai’s economy in the next decade and consolidate its position among the world’s top three global cities. In the first stage of the plan, one of the projects is launching a programme to attract the world’s best universities, making Dubai a global pioneering hub for higher education.

We set up in the UAE in 2005 (although we were founded in 1821, this is almost a recent development for us) and have always considered Dubai a pioneer in education. Initially, we found ourselves educating UAE-based students who were choosing to stay here rather than study abroad, but nowadays, 40 per cent of our students come from elsewhere to study here. This is likely to increase, supported by the UAE’s generous visa policies, which allow students to work part-time, and compares favourably to countries such as Australia and Canada which are imposing ever harsher visa regimes.

Heriot-Watt University will continue to contribute to the UAE economy and to the growth of Dubai while honouring the legacy of COP28.

We will do this though the development of cutting-edge research and by preparing our students for the jobs of the future. I feel enormously excited for 2024.