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This paper looks at the development of green skills in a Regional TAFE Institute. The study follows the implementation of the Green Skills Agreement and explores the perceptions of stakeholders and participants about how jobs are changing, the demand for green skills along with possible future directions, inclusion of learning about sustainability and green skills within [vocational education and training] VET programs, and access to appropriately aligned professional development for TAFE teachers and managers. The paper reports on data collected through interviews with four TAFE managers, five TAFE teachers, seven TAFE students, and four industry and/or community representatives.

Stakeholders in green industries are reporting that their economic viability tends to be closely tied to government subsidies, and some are expressing some frustration at the promises of businesses and government to develop a large scale solar industry. However, the domestic solar industry continues to grow. TAFE managers and teachers report seeing more sustainability-orientated content being included in their courses. TAFE staff also report positively on receiving access to associated professional development as the senior management at this Institute appear to be supporting the development of TAFE staff to teach green skills. The students interviewed for this research were studying Electrotechnology and Land and Conservation Management. Both groups reported seeing changes being implemented in their workplaces, their courses of study and the community. The students interviewed tended to be very knowledgeable and interested in the changes they were seeing.

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This study analyses how one Victorian regional [Technical and Further Education] TAFE Institute is working towards understanding and contributing to skill formation for the green economy. While we already know that the provision of vocational education and training in regional areas contributes to regional innovation and development, (Kilpatrick, Johns and Rosenblatt, 2000; Gelade and Fox, 2008; Kearns, Bowman and Garlick, 2008; TAFE Directors Australia, 2011), this research provides a case study of how this is occurring with regard to the development of green skills. The study presents the perceptions and understandings of participants drawn from four different cohorts. These cohorts are (1) key players in the community/industry representatives, (2) TAFE managers, (3) TAFE teachers, and (4) TAFE students. The study found that work and jobs are changing to become more sustainable though investment in large scale alternative energy generation while often lauded had failed to reach fruition. Likewise, [vocational education and training] VET training programs are also changing with teachers and students contributing to the complex arrangements around the supply and demand for green skills. The teachers at this regional TAFE who participated in the study reported that they were well supported in accessing and participating in relevant sustainability-related professional development. Finally, numerous examples were evident throughout the study of how the work performed by staff at this TAFE institute was contributing towards regional and community development.

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One of the strategies being advocated in response to climate change is the need to transition to a low carbon economy. Current projections show that within this transition, new jobs will be created, some eliminated and most others subjected to change. This article reports findings from interviews with a selection of 20 participants who are involved in the formation and/or deployment of green skills. The participants were asked about their perceptions of: (1) how jobs are changing in the transition to a green economy; (2) how are adult learners developing and using green skills; and (3) what are some of the main drivers and blockers to the development and use of green skills. The data are presented as vignettes from various positions of supply and demand within the emerging green economy.

The findings of this study report that the organisations and the training providers are motivated to develop and/or deploy green jobs and green skills for a range of different reasons. These include the making of a favourable business case, environmental beliefs about conserving the finite resources of the planet, and for health and wellbeing reasons. Some blockers that have been identified are the initial capital outlay for any changes, and the need to address some inconsistencies that arise over time in the financial arrangements when trying to work out the business case. This has led the designers and contractors working in renewable energy to call for a level playing field with those who provide and utilise finite resources and non-renewable energy. Overall transition to a low carbon and green economy is shown to be supported and occurring with some limited success. However there is a need for further larger scale research into this area of skill formation and deployment.

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This paper reports on the early stages of research in progress. It is a research project being funded by the Institute for Social and Environmental Sustainability at Latrobe University to research sustainability, [vocational education and training] VET and the transition to a low carbon economy. With governments at all levels putting in place targets, policies, infrastructure and projects to initiate more sustainable living, this paper identifies and tracks some of the key policies. In the international arena, the United Nations has instigated and facilitated substantial work in these fields. While amongst the policies and plans being put in place at a federal level are the National VET Sector Sustainability Policy and Action Plan 2009-2012, the Green Skills Agreement, and The Green Skills Agreement Implementation Plan 2010-2011. All of these policies are calling for significant changes to be instigated. Jobs are changing in a number of different ways. With some jobs, modifications are occurring to accommodate a shift to more sustainable practices; this is being accompanied by the creation of new jobs in emerging industries, while less sustainable jobs stand to be eliminated. These changes to work and jobs bring skill development within VET to the fore.

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The Gen Green 3 study, a partnership between La Trobe University and WorldSkills Australia captured apprentices' and trainees' experiences of skills and sustainability in workplaces and courses in 2012, building on the Gen Green 2008 and 2010 surveys. The research indicated a step change in apprentices' and trainees' experience of skills for sustainability in work and training between 2008 and 2010, but only minor changes in the experience of these skills at work and in training from 2010 to 2013. Cost was consistently indicated as the most widely experienced barrier to practicing these skills at work and the main driver for gaining these skills was a personal interesting sustainability, an interest that remained consistently high over the three surveys.

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This paper provides insight into the attitudes and perceptions of young people who are studying, or who are recent graduates of [vocational education and training] VET programs to identify and discuss issues and trends emerging from research into the development of 'skills for sustainability'. Located in the wake of the implementation of the Green Skills Agreement (Council of Australian Governments 2010), this paper brings together findings from recent research undertaken separately by these two researchers. The study by Sack (2012) was conducted under the auspices of the Dusseldorp Skills Forum and involves review and analysis of the 2008 and 2011 Gen Green surveys of Australian WorldSkills competitors. These two surveys have been analysed separately and more recently together, to provide a longitudinal snapshot of the issues and trends as depicted by young people in VET. The 2011 survey shows that some important environmental, social and economic skills are largely absent from courses and workplaces, suggesting scope for a broader revision of public policy around skills for sustainability in the future. Following a key finding from these two surveys that recognises technical and further education (TAFE) as the main source of learning about sustainability skills, this paper includes a slice drawn through the data in a recent study by Brown (2012) involving semi-structured interviews with 19 TAFE students located in three different TAFE institutes and one recent VET graduate. While far from universal, these TAFE students reported changes being implemented into both their work roles and their courses of study.

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The implementation of the Green Skills Agreement ratified by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in 2010 provides the national policy context for this analysis of skills for sustainability. Data from three different but complementary studies provide powerful insight into the attitudes and perceptions of young people who are studying, or are recent graduates of, Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs. [The authors] argue that the voices of the young people who participate as students are largely absent from analysis and policy-making, despite policy rhetoric about a demand driven Australian tertiary education sector responsive to consumer (student) interest and need. The combination of these three studies contributes to an improved understanding of what these young adults think and are learning with regard to skills for sustainability in their VET courses and in their workplaces.

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[Vocational education and training] VET students and their teachers have unique insights into the supply of demand for skills for sustainability, and this viewpoint can contribute, now and in to the future, to the further development of skills for sustainability in Australia. In this research skills for sustainability are broadly conceived as including skills for social, economic and environmental sustainability - a triple bottom line approach. The study provides evidence on the actual depth and breadth of the take-up of these skills within Australian training organisations and workplaces.

In summary, the results show that: apprentices, trainees and their teachers cared a great deal about soil, economic and environmental sustainability; supply was closely aligned to social demand for skills for sustainability so that demand for skills for sustainability from VET students was almost entirely met; there are important differences in the teaching, learning and utilisation of skills for sustainability that are related to gender and age; and in-class learning of environmental skills has increased over time and now slightly outweighs learning of these skills at work, however community learning of these skills outweighs both.

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This paper provides a brief overview to the results of the suite of Gen Green bi-annual surveys that were conducted in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014. These surveys looked at the skill formation and utilisation of Australian apprentices and trainees with the period under study coinciding with the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainability (DESD). The major strategy for development [of] Education for Sustainable Development in the Australian [vocational education and training] VET sector was the Green Skills Agreement that was implemented in 2010. Consequently, the findings of these surveys stand as an evaluative indicator of the skill formation and utilisation of skills for sustainability during this period of intense federal, state and enterprise-based investment in skills for sustainability. These studies conclude that there has been a high and is high demand for skills for sustainability from apprentices and trainees and their workplaces and that most of this demand is being met.

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