Our research has shown that Alberta employed nearly 100,000 green workers in 2019, or 4.3% of the province’s total employed workforce. A greener, post-COVID recovery will mean new job and career opportunities in areas like environmental consulting, energy efficiency, renewable energy, cleantech, and ecotourism as well as in traditional sectors such as construction, oil and gas, and forestry. Identifying and filling green talent needs and gaps will be key to ensuring this growing workforce sees long-term economic success.
That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’ve partnered with the Province of Alberta and several other associations to develop a green hiring outlook and job snapshots, talent strategies, career and worker transition resources, and an employer HR toolkit under two new workforce initiatives:
- Profiling Green Jobs and Supporting Workforce Resiliency in Alberta: In this 15-month project, we will deliver in-depth environmental labour market information by occupation, by specialization and by sector, formulate a stakeholder-validated sector workforce strategy, and distribute worker transition resources. Additional project partners include the Environmental Services Association of Alberta and Energy Safety Canada, through the PetroLMI Division.
- Enhancing Employer Capacity to Advance Energy Efficiency Talent in Alberta’s Building Sector: This 18-month project will facilitate capacity building among Alberta’s building sector and ultimately support the growth, diversification and future-proofing of its workforce. Partnerships with Canada Green Building Council, Alberta Energy Efficiency Alliance, and Efficiency Canada will strengthen the development of an energy-efficient building sector workforce strategy, promote the sector and its many career opportunities, and produce a talent management toolkit.
The resulting insights, tools and outreach efforts from these projects have the potential to result in job recovery for many Albertans as we work together to address the need for environmental talent across the province and its industries.
As part of these projects, we’ll hold workforce strategy sessions in the coming months and speaking to those in the sector to identify priority actions.
Contact research@eco.ca for more information or to get involved.
