03 February 2021
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Scottish Renewables CEO Claire Mack has welcomed the creation of the Green Jobs Workforce Academy which has been announced as "a national mission for new, good and green jobs" in the Scottish Governments Budget.
Finance Secretary Kate Forbes made the pledge set to ensure those reskilling or facing redundancy can take advantage of green job opportunities as they emerge.
Those opportunities are expected to arise from:
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The transition to renewable heat, which is expected to create between 16,000 and 17,000 skilled jobs over the next decade.
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The more-than ten-fold increase in Scotland's offshore wind sector which The Scottish Government deems possible by 2030.
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Continued development of mature technologies, such as onshore wind and solar, and innovative ones, like tidal and floating wind, needed to meet our net-zero target.
The move mirrors Scottish Renewables' recent call for a skills centre of excellence to be established, and for the industry to be consulted on its curriculum content.
Mack commented: "The Climate Change Committee has said the UK must quadruple its renewable energy capacity if it is to meet net-zero by 2050. Doing that will mean upskilling, reskilling and educating an army of people for high-quality, sustainable, green jobs of the future.
The Cabinet Secretary's announcement is a significant step forward not just for our industry - which will require a large number of skilled employees as we work towards our net-zero target - but also for all those people whose careers are not compatible with net-zero.
Along with other initiatives already underway the Green Jobs Workforce Academy has the potential to help provide the skills Scotland will desperately need if it is to contribute to the global fight against climate change and capture the social and economic benefits of doing so."
The Budget also provided details of £2 billion of low-carbon investment to on the deliver announcements made in the Programme for Government and Climate Change Update across the next five years. It also detailed more than £8 million for outreach and engagement activities connected to the United Nations COP26 conference, which is to be held in Glasgow in November 2021.
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