Blog Post: GreenPrint Workshop (27th June 2025)

Published: 8th August 2025

In June, the New Forest National Park Authority and the Southampton COLIF team hosted a workshop for the Greenprint network at the University of Southampton. We used this occasion to update stakeholders from local authorities, universities in the region and industry representatives on our research to date. We also invited a keynote speaker, Jamie Mackay from Hampshire County Council, to present emerging policy ideas and concerns for the region. The core of our workshop time was to actively collect data from participants through a series of activities designed to elicit their thoughts on the future of green skills and jobs for the region, encompassing discussions on definitions, challenges and opportunities. More on those below.

COLIF project team (L-R): Sheena Carlisle, Jim Mitchell, Ashra Khanom, Emma Rawlings Smith, Jacqueline Nightingale

Keynote

Our keynote speech was delivered by Jamie Mackay, Strategic Skills Lead at Hampshire County Council. Jamie talked about how the future of work is being shaped by global forces from AI and automation to shifting demographics and evolving employee expectations. He noted that the megatrend that stands out as both a challenge and a strategic opportunity is the green transition. His presentation can be found here.

Our Research to Date

Ashra Khanom (L) and Jamie Mackay (R) in conversation with participants after their presentations.

Ashra Khanom presented the initial findings from our literature review of green skills and jobs from both the academic and policy perspectives. She noted that various studies have identified a lack of common understanding or familiarity with green skills. The apparent failure to have an agreed definition of “green skills and jobs” creates an obstacle for progress across all sectors. We have therefore spent time identifying the most relevant definition(s) of “green skills and jobs” for the region and were able to introduce two suggested frameworks from the literature that are influencing the direction of our research. The first is from the Kwauk and Casey (2022) study on a green skills framework for climate action, empowerment and justice, which delineates skills for green jobs, green life skills and skills for a green transformation. In comparison, the GreenSkills.org initiative has created an open source Global Green Skills Map that divides green skills by sector as well as identifying enabling skills and steps for the acceleration of green skills.

Figure 1. A green skills framework (Kwauk and Casey, 2022)

Figure 2. Global Green Skills Map 1.0 for illustration purposes – see link for full detail (GreenSkills.org, 2025)

Activities

We presented three activities at the workshop: (1) Defining green skills, (2) Challenges and barriers to green skills development, and (3) Big Ticket / Small Wins.

Activity #1 – Defining Green Skills
Workshop participants had a chance to explore the green skills frameworks that we presented from the literature in some depth. They then discussed and generated their own definitions in small groups. Data analysis here will focus on prioritisation of skillsets, level of interest in the frameworks presented and the categorisation of green skills. Overall, we are looking at how to represent the multiplicity in any definitions or framework proposed for the region.

Activity #2 – Challenges and barriers to green skills development
This activity was the heart of the workshop where we facilitated several small group discussions on the challenges and barriers that we face in developing green skills and jobs. These conversations were animated and insightful. The transcripts are being analysed with a view to identifying superordinate and sub-themes, as well as codes that will transpose to data collected separately in individual interviews. It seems clear at this early stage that a helpful distinction will be between what are organisational/institutional problems and are what are external/contextual challenges, especially from a hierarchy of political perspectives (regional v national).

Sheena presenting the topics of challenges and barriers for discussion.

Activity #3- Big ticket / small win
This final activity of the day was deliberately short to encourage participants into offering the opportunities at the forefront of their minds after the morning of detailed and deep discussions. We asked for the actionable possibilities that are quick to put in place in the region (small wins manageable in less than five years) and visionary ideas to fully realise the green skills and jobs agenda (big ticket items achievable in the next 5-10 years). The data review here is currently being viewed through a lens of responsibility, classifying actions primarily by the sector likely to lead in its implementation.

The collection of post-it notes containing ideas for Big Ticket and Small Win opportunities

Next Steps

With all this new data from the workshop and the individual interviews, we are deep in the analysis to bring all the content together. At this stage, we are also thinking keenly about the presentation of our findings and recommendations. We will be putting together a publication accessible to multiple sectors and looking forward to presenting this both online and in person at various upcoming events later this year.

- Jacqueline Nightingale, 25th July 2025