'This report really ought to be welcomed. If we are to have a private-sector-led economic recovery, then we need active Government engagement to promote the skills agenda.“

Gavin Shuker MP, Shadow Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

'These essays are designed to stimulate new thinking around sustainable resource sector skills. We know the sector is facing the prospect of a skills gap in the future. The question is how do we prepare? The ideas are there and they're clearly laid out in this new report.“

Barry Sheerman MP, Chair, Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group report and former Chair, Education Select Committee

The Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group (APSRG) published a report on skills in the sustainable resource management industry. Taking the form of a collection of essays, 'Sustainable Skills: The Future of the Waste Management Industry' features 12 essays from experts across Parliament, Government and industry to critically explore the skills needs of the sustainable resource management industry now and in the future. The final report was launched in Parliament on 12 November by Gavin Shuker MP, Shadow Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. 

Background

The sustainable resource sector is developing more advanced reprocessing and recycling technologies and focusing on more varied and more specific waste streams, as the percentage of waste diverted from landfill in the UK annually increases. As sustainable resource management continues to innovate to meet the challenges associated with a changing policy landscape, and ambitious sustainability targets from EU legislation, the sector will require increasingly skilled workers to occupy long-term, strategic positions and contribute actively in the transition to a green and growing economy.

Against this background, the APSRG has launched a collection of essays from a range of experts from Parliament, Government and industry, examining the skills-needs of the waste management industry now and in the future. This essay collection aims to stimulate new thinking on the key issue of skills provision for the future of the industry, as well as identify the current gaps in the skills market and highlight contemporary best-practice.

Broadly divided into four sections, the project includes essays which explore the ‘key issues’ facing the sector at the moment and the current policy landscape. It also assesses current skills within the waste sector, and the role that new technologies have played in changing the skills requirements for the sector, aiming to provoke questions and provide solutions as to how the sustainable resource sector can continue to innovate and drive green growth. 

The report and launch event were kindly sponsored by Society for the Environment

The launch event was kindly co-sponsored by M+W Group.

In the Press

•    ‘Skills needed to push industry forward’ – Letsrecycle.com
•    ‘Group warns industry must pay for vital skills’ – MRW
•    ‘BIS: Building skills for a green economy' – Edie.net
•    ‘Skills, a greener economy and the 3 ‘R’s' – Plastics and Rubber Weekly
•    ‘APSRG Report Highlights Need for Skills in the Waste Sector’ - CIWM
•    ‘New report published into skills in the sustainable resource management industry’ – Energy & Utility Skills