Developing green skills

The Department for the Economy’s (DfE) Green Skills Action Plan, published in May 2025 details its strategy to develop the skills needed to help Northern Ireland achieve its 80 per cent renewable energy target by 2030 with some progress being made on its commitments.

The low carbon and renewable energy sector generated approximately £1.6 billion in turnover and provided 5,200 full-time equivalent jobs in 2024, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Northern Ireland’s draft Climate Action Plan 2023-2027 aims to “at least double” the size of the sector by the end of its lifespan.

To achieve this, the Green Skills Action Plan commits to 28 actions focused on four priority areas: strengthening the skills ecosystem, developing cross-sector partnerships, promoting awareness of green careers, and building a skilled green workforce.

The Green Skills Delivery Group has been tasked with overseeing the implementation and monitoring of the Action Plan.

The Action Plan designates eight actions as short term, meaning they are to be completed within 18 months.

Five of these actions have been completed and the other three are currently being progressed, with work on an additional 10 medium-term actions underway.

One of the delivered commitments is the Green Skills Information Hub which provides information on apprentices, skills programmes, and employability programmes to employers and individuals.

The delivery group has also developed a detailed workforce analysis in the priority sectors, large-scale energy production, infrastructure, domestic low-carbon technologies, and energy efficiency.

The most definitive progress made in the green skills sector came from a programme not contained in the plan which was delivered the month after the Action Plan’s publication in June 2025.

The Green Accelerator Skills Programme (GRASP) is a €9.8 million cross-border initiative designed to address the significant green skills deficit currently present in the construction sector both north and south.

GRASP is a PEACEPLUS initiative funded by the UK Government and the EU which partners with further education providers to offer approximately 50 funded green skills programmes.

Three Northern Ireland FE colleges – Southwest, Southern Regional, and Northwest Regional – are involved with the programme.

Additionally, in 2025, the South Eastern Regional College established a new retrofit training suite and introduced Northern Ireland’s first green technology training qualifications.

With the Assembly elections due to take place in early 2027, it appears that this Executive will make little more significant progress on green skills, although some actions are underway.

A sub-group of the Green Skills Delivery Group was established to identify the skills required to deliver a skilled workforce to address the challenges and opportunities the transition to a sustainable economy will require.

In January 2026, a survey was launched by the DfE to identify the priority infrastructure-related green skills and when they will be needed in order to influence future skills development and delivery.

The Department for the Economy has told agendaNi: “The Department’s focus will remain on accelerating the delivery of the Green Skills Action Plan to ensure Northern Ireland has the workforce needed to support the transition to a low-carbon economy.

“Key priorities include strengthening the green skills ecosystem, improving pathways into green careers, embedding green skills across the curriculum, supporting upskilling and reskilling, and matching skills provision to workforce needs.”