Skills without colours? How to navigate the green transition in local labour markets

This webinar was the 22nd meeting of the Spatial Productivity Lab.

The Spatial Productivity Lab (SPL) at the OECD Trento Centre for Local Development is a dedicated research laboratory that works with local and global partners to advance knowledge about the ways regional policy and a better understanding of spatial links can improve productivity growth and thereby the creation of better jobs and well-being. 

As the world faces a growing urgency to address the climate crisis, the green transition has become an essential focus for many communities, organisations and industries.

However, the transition to sustainable, low-carbon regional economies requires a workforce with specific skills and competencies. Some jobs will change or disappear, while new jobs for the green economy emerge. This presents challenges for local labour markets, because the places where jobs disappear may not the same as where the new jobs are created. Moreover, even if the green transition creates jobs in the same place, the skill requirements for such new jobs may be substantially different from those required in disappearing jobs. The differences in skill requirements are likely to vary across places due to characteristics of local labour markets, such as its size and the industrial composition of the region.

This webinar discussed the analytical tools to identify across local labour markets the skills demand for the green transition, how easily current workers can transition in such jobs and local policy experiments that are already underway to help workers find and access the right alternative job.

The event was open to civil society and all those interested in the topic upon free registration.

For more information, please contact Carlo.Menon@oecd.org and Wessel.Vermeulen@oecd.org.