Green Collar Worker

I'm chuckling to myself about the new lingo that has been devised for the whole world of jobs that are opening up due to the (potential and realised) boom of the 'Environmental Industry'.

So I guess there's the likes of my side of things - conservation, parks & gardens, rangers etc etc - but then there's also the renewable energy sector, sustainability, environmental policy, environmental architects, enviro engineers, enviro lawyers, organic farmers..... etc etc etc. The list goes on.

So we've been categorised "Green Collar Workers". Genius. Give whoever invented that a gold star. Just so happens I do actually wear a green collar to work though!

Interesting press release from the Australian Conservation Foundation, (I hope it comes off);

The Australian Federal Government has released details of its Skills for the Carbon Challenge plan which will commit $25.7 million to drive green skills and training development.

A major report by the ACF and ACTU shows Australia has the potential to generate up to 500,000 additional green collar jobs by 2030 and multi-billion dollar export opportunities. Both organisations believe the Government’s initiative is a welcome step towards this goal.

According to ACTU President Sharan Burrow: “It will help our global competitiveness and give incentives to industries to train people for sustainable jobs.

“Resourcing skills development and creating a knowledge base here in Australia means we are not buying in expertise from overseas and will position us well to take advantage of new technology as the economy recovers.”

Support for apprentices is important, as young people are being hard hit by the economic downturn.

“We hope this Federal Government initiative will be the start of a more ambitious long term plan for green collar job creation.”

ACF executive director Don Henry adds: “It’s important for Australia to identify and develop the green skills, knowledge and jobs that are needed to move Australia to a low carbon economy.

“This initiative is a modest but welcome step. By being ambitious about climate change action Australia can create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. To get there we need to equip Australian workers with the skills they will need to succeed.”