Fair Play: Ethical AI in Talent Acquisition

How to Get AI Ready for a Secure and Efficient Recruitment Process

The buzz around the ever-evolving intelligence and pace of AI has helped it become a pervasive force at work and at play. With its boundless intrigue, AI incites both excitement and unease as individuals and industries alike endeavor to make sense of this groundbreaking technology and choose and use it wisely.

A recent AMS poll found that respondents were most eager for expert advice about the risks and benefits of AI in talent acquisition. While AI is reinventing the hiring process, TA leaders must never lose sight of its potential risks — as the saying goes, “with great power comes great responsibility.” In this guide, we will explore the significance and importance of ethical AI, and how best to mitigate the risks in talent acquisition to ensure responsible and compliant deployment.

Your Ethical AI Journey: An Overview

Practical Steps for TA Leaders

Develop a Comprehensive AI Strategy

Identify where AI will have the most impact and ensure it aligns with your organizational goals and values.

Establish Governance and Accountability

Set up risk assessments, conduct regular audits and create clear policies for ethical AI use.

Upskilling and Change Management

Ensure your TA teams are trained not just in using AI tools but in understanding the ethical and responsible frameworks guiding their use.

Partner with Experts

Work with consultants or third parties to evaluate risks and optimize the integration of AI.

Ethical AI in Talent Acquisition: Its Importance

With its dynamic and complex environment, characterized by numerous critical deadlines, talent acquisition is perfectly suited for AI transformation. In fact, following the debut of ChatGPT in late 2022, forward-thinking TA teams are already using generative AI tools to heighten efficiency, lighten recruiters’ workloads and enhance their abilities. Using AI in TA can lead to many important ethical outcomes, including:

Improved Accessibility: AI can enhance accessibility and grammar on printed and digital materials, that can create a better work environment for individuals with dyslexia, vision and hearing impairments, and physical disabilities via voice-controlled systems and adaptive hardware.

Bias Reduction and Increased Diversity: If trained in an ethical manner, AI can minimize bias by focusing on merit rather than irrelevant demographic factors, such as name, race, gender, ethnicity, appearance and age. Instead, hiring managers can focus on a candidate’s skills, expertise and interaction during live or virtual interviews. When AI is designed and deployed with ethical considerations in mind, it can promote diversity, ensuring fair treatment and creating more inclusive hiring processes.

Enhanced Data Safety and Privacy: Safety protocols like encryption, secure data storage and strict access controls help ensure that employee and candidate data are protected from breaches and misuse. Safe AI tools also help organizations comply with regulations and privacy law, minimizing legal risks.

Increased Accountability: Explainability is a requirement to ensure you are using AI compliantly. Understanding how your AI tool influences candidate selection, evaluation, and hiring recommendations means you can articulate the reasoning or logic behind an AI-enabled decision to candidates, colleagues and other stakeholders. It also ensures the TA professionals have insight into how and why decisions were made, so the AI is not operating in a vacuum.

Informed Decision-Making: With proper implementation and monitoring, AI provides actionable, data-driven insights, enabling recruiters to make more informed hiring decisions. By analyzing trends and performance data, it can help refine and optimize talent acquisition strategies over time.

Task Optimization Enabling Human Impact: By automating time-consuming and repetitive tasks like answering candidate questions or scheduling interviews, ethical AI tools can handle a large volume of tasks and free employers to focus on meaningful human interactions. This can create more transparent and authentic hiring processes and experiences.

Ethical and Responsible AI: The Background

AI can evolve talent acquisition, but improper use poses risk to fairness, trust and legal compliance. Ethical and responsible AI are complementary frameworks to ensure fair, safe and effective deployment of AI. Understanding the meaning behind the way we refer to these topics is a good place to start.

So, what’s the difference between Ethical AI and Responsible AI?

Ethical AI:

Focuses on high-level principles like fairness, non-discrimination, and respect for human rights.

Example: Ensuring that AI models do not disadvantage specific groups based on race, gender, or other protected characteristics.

Responsible AI:

Operationalizes ethical principles through governance, accountability, and compliance with regulations.

Example: Regular AI audits to identify and mitigate biases, ensuring models comply with data protection laws.

“Today’s TA leaders need to be certain that they’re operating within the boundaries of both Ethical AI and Responsible AI when using these tools in the recruitment process. For a successful AI deployment, TA leaders need to surround themselves with a team of experts in process design, change management and upskilling to incorporate new technologies. This will help make sure they avoid common pitfalls that could arise with AI tools.”

Luke Kohlrieser, Head of Technology & Analytics Talent Consulting

Responsible AI: The Global Governance Environment

As AI use continues to rapidly expand into the recruitment process and beyond, it is vital to recognize and address the various safety considerations associated with its use. The sweeping EU AI Act is at the forefront of establishing a comprehensive regulatory framework for AI. With its categorization of AI applications into a four-tier classification system based on risk level, it is setting a precedent for using AI safely.

Unacceptable Risk

This category includes AI systems that pose a clear threat to safety, rights, or livelihoods. These systems are prohibited, along with those that manipulate human behavior.

Examples include systems that manipulate behavior subliminally, exploit vulnerabilities of individuals, categorize people based on sensitive characteristics.

High Risk

These AI systems significantly affect safety or fundamental human rights and require strict compliance measures.

Examples include AI used in recruitment tools, making decisions on promotions, task allocation and performance monitoring. They must undergo rigorous assessments and ensure transparency and accountability.

Limited Risk

AI applications in this category pose minimal risk. While they still require transparency (e.g., informing users they are interacting with AI), the compliance obligations are lighter.

Examples include chatbots or AI-driven customer service tools.

Minimal or No Risk

This category encompasses AI systems that pose little to no risk to people using these solutions.

These systems can operate without regulatory oversight, such as spam filters or AI for basic data processing tasks.

In the absence of federal regulations, the United States is using the EU AI Act as a reference point. Meanwhile, state-level regulations are emerging, such as the Colorado AI Act, which incorporates several principles from the EU AI Act. Additionally, states like California and Illinois may soon implement regulations similar to New York’s Local Law 144, which governs the use of automated employment decision tools (AEDT). Canada is advancing its own AI legislation through the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA), and a continued collaboration with industry experts and the public to shape effective regulations.

As the global AI regulatory landscape continues to evolve — and more laws are coming — planning is important. If you set the stage now for your ethical AI roadmap, and conduct the right audits, you will have an easier time responding to the changes that come with laws and data protection standards as new elements are introduced.

Here is a brief list of AMS analysis of recent AI laws:

Who Owns the Risk in an AI Anti-Bias Audit?

Recruiters using AI must still obey civil rights laws: Guidance from the EEOC

EEOC Commissioner: Recruiters must avoid AI recruiting tools that intentionally select candidates based upon their protected characteristics

“The regulatory framework for AI is becoming increasingly fragmented as Governments around the world race to keep up with both anticipated and unanticipated impacts of AI use. For talent professionals, this means they have to keep abreast of a changing environment from both a legal regulation and an ethical AI use perspective. Against this backdrop, the role of talent teams is being elevated as they work closely with their compliance, governance and legal teams to ensure new guidelines and regulatory frameworks are enforced across geographies.”

Gordon Bull, Chief Legal, Risk and Compliance Officer

Ethical and Responsible AI: Hiring Process Considerations

Using AI to handle daily tasks for you is helpful in HR, but AI can do much more than manage time-consuming tasks. This technology could enhance fairness in the hiring process by eliminating bias and identifying candidates from diverse backgrounds, who may have been overlooked in a traditional hiring process.

By using AI, TA leaders can ensure that every effort was taken to hire the right person with no regard to their race, gender, religious background and other factors. Instead, AI can focus on hiring the right person for the job.

AI in hiring goes beyond the recruitment process itself and can contribute to culture-building and supporting DEIB initiatives and goals. For example, AI can help create structured and consistent questions for all candidates, thereby reducing inconsistencies in the interview process that might introduce bias. A selection of AI tools can analyze language and patterns in job descriptions, candidate outreach and interview questions that identify and remove bias. This helps TAs avoid terms and phrases that may unintentionally thwart candidates from underrepresented groups seeking employment.

One of the ways you can plan to hire safely is by identifying an ethical AI problem that resonates with you and identify what next to explore:

Select an ethical statement that is relevant to your organization:

“We don’t want to replace human judgement with AI.”

You can:

• Ensure you have done the proper strategic planning to understand how your goals line up with ethical AI safeguards
• Learn how AI safely functions in screening and assessment tools
• Plan for data security with regards to AI usage
• Leverage controlled pilot programs to ensure AI adoption at a manageable pace.

“How do we ensure we don’t run into legislative or compliance issues down the line.”

You can:

• Assess your current state of AI usage and discover any areas that are out of balance with upcoming legislation
• Put the right foundations in place to ensure a smooth execution of AI initiatives
• Leverage upskilling to ensure AI Is aligned properly with your business

“We’re looking to leverage AI for maximum impact, even if its new territory.”

You can:

• Look at your end-to-end process for AI usage. Is it organized in a way that will deliver the transformation you are hoping for while maintaining a regulatory framework?
• Have an advanced understanding of data and insights as it relates to AI
• Look at using AI and automation-assisted branding to scale your brand strategies while maintaining a unique tone of voice.

Staying Ahead: Empower Your Workforce with Ethical AI Skills

To fully leverage AI’s potential to streamline processes, improve decision-making, and enhance candidate experiences, organizations must prioritize ethical AI training for their talent acquisition teams. Training staff who use AI is not only a legal obligation under the AI Act but also a strategic necessity. “Without proper upskilling, teams risk falling behind in a rapidly changing landscape where competitors may gain the upper hand by adopting ethical AI more quickly and effectively,” says Nicola Matson, Head of Technology & Analytics Advisory (UKI & EMEA). “Upskilling isn’t just about learning to use new tools—it’s about fostering a mindset that embraces innovation and ethical considerations,” she adds. “Failure to invest in AI upskilling could leave organizations and their employees at a disadvantage, both in terms of productivity and career growth.”

To stay competitive, companies must recognize that AI is not just a tool—it’s a strategic advantage that must be used responsibly. Preparing your team with the knowledge and skills to work alongside ethical AI ensures that they can confidently navigate the future of talent acquisition and remain at the forefront of industry innovation.

Navigating the Ethical AI Landscape: Get Expert Strategic Guidance

As a talent acquisition leader, AMS has the expertise to help organizations on their AI journey. When a TA team implements an AI tool, they are adopting a capability – but deploying it ethically requires strategic guidance from experts who know how to integrate AI into the hiring process responsibly. “There’s plenty of work and governance to get ready,” says Laurie Padua, Managing Director, Talent Consulting at AMS. “Partnering with an organization like AMS can help you to identify risk and embed ethical AI into your processes and people to facilitate change and drive outcomes safely.” This means creating structure and rules around AI with an expert to establish clear guidelines and protocols, ensuring its responsible use and continual optimization.

“TA leaders know hiring and AMS knows about the cutting-edge innovations that can help them find and retain the right talent for the coming decade. When navigating through uncharted waters, you want someone at the helm who has the experience and expertise to ensure a safe journey.”

Laurie Padua, Managing Director, Talent Consulting, AMS

Talent consulting for AI is crucial to your governance framework and ethical strategy because it ensures the responsible and effective integration of AI technologies within your organization. By working with experienced consultants, you can align AI initiatives with ethical guidelines, minimize risks and maintain transparency in decision-making. Talent consultants help identify the right skills and expertise, promote fairness and ensure compliance with regulations, which is vital for building trust, mitigating bias and fostering accountability as AI becomes increasingly embedded in organizational processes. Ultimately, it strengthens your ability to govern AI use responsibly and ethically.

Conclusion

In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, the pace of AI innovation is accelerating and its impact on talent acquisition is profound. To remain competitive, organizations must adopt AI swiftly and strategically. But speed without a robust ethical and responsible framework can lead to serious risks—legal, reputational and operational.

At AMS, we specialize in guiding organizations through the complexities of integrating AI into talent acquisition. Whether you’re just beginning to explore AI or looking to optimize its use, we provide comprehensive support at every stage. From initial strategy workshops and risk assessments to implementation, governance and ongoing enhancements, our experts ensure that your AI deployment is not only effective but also ethical and compliant.

Start your journey to using ethical AI with

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A checklist to guide your AI transformation

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AI-Enabled Talent Acquisition

Your AI transformation checklist

In today’s competitive job market, leveraging AI in talent acquisition can significantly enhance your recruitment process. However, implementing AI comes with its own set of risks. Like any technology, achieving a return on investment requires careful implementation and proactive change management.

This checklist highlights the key considerations for each stage of your AI journey, from exploration and implementation to optimization in talent acquisition.

Exploring AI

Ensure you have a clear understanding of the opportunities and risks of implementing AI in TA
Audit your organizational needs. Where do you have challenges that AI could help solve?
Identify where AI fits in your Talent Acquisition Strategy and where it doesn’t
Define clear goals and objectives for use of AI
Ensure there is a shared understanding of this amongst your senior team in TA and HR
Establish rules around where to limit AI usage
Identify nuances where human judgement and final decision making are critical
Understand regional and local regulations
Create guidelines about sharing sensitive organization information with AI systems
Identify where training is required for AI adoption
Create a detailed plan outlining the steps needed for AI usage
Document KPI, timelines and required resources

Implementing AI

Select the right providers that can support your requirements
Review how this new technology will fit with your current tech stack
Define clear objectives – with measurable goals like time-to-hire or improving candidate quality
Develop a plan to incorporate AI i into your existing workflows and systems
Track your KPIs to measure the impact of AI on your TA processes
Use data and enhance your feedback loop, to improve your chosen AI tool is still effective over time
Secure internal and leadership support, as well as a culture of adoption, with the right change management approaches

Optimizing AI

Set up smart training and education to introduce/re-introduce and demystify the tool
Highlight success stories and how recruitment outcomes can be enhanced so team can see tangible benefits
Pilot AI in controlled recruitment environments and allow the team to become comfortable with the impacts of technology
Show why you have selected the AI you have, and show how intuitive and easy to use it is
Create an ecosystem of shared experience and suggestions for future improvements
Address concerns around job displacement and privacy, provide reassurance and issue management

How AMS can help

Our TA Consulting team offers a suite of solutions to support you at every stage of your AI journey. No matter where you are with AI, strategic planning can yield a variety of benefits, including:

Aligning your team on overall AI strategy
Receiving an AI Readiness Review and Roadmap
Confidently implementing AI use cases in TA
Choosing and implementing AI technology
Eliminating AI roadblocks and mitigating risks
Upskilling your team and boosting AI adoption
Harnessing AI enabled data and insights
Enhancing your brand and candidate experience
Driving transformation and measure AI’s impact on hiring

How AMS can help

Aligning your team on overall AI strategy
Receiving an AI Readiness Review and Roadmap
Confidently implementing AI use cases in TA
Choosing and implementing AI technology
Eliminating AI roadblocks and mitigating risks
Upskilling your team and boosting AI adoption
Harnessing AI enabled data and insights
Enhancing your brand and candidate experience
Driving transformation and measure AI’s impact on hiring

To explore Talent Consulting for AI and its benefits,
check out our strategic services overview tailored to align with your business goals.

Learn more

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In this report, you’ll discover:

Why green skills are critical: Learn why these skills are essential not just in traditional green sectors, but across every industry.

The state of green skills today: Understand the barriers to finding and cultivating green talent—and what’s holding us back.

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This report isn’t just another analysis—it’s a call to action. Whether you’re a talent leader, HR professional, or sustainability advocate, you’ll find insights that can transform your approach to building a sustainable workforce.

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The role of Talent Acquisition in closing the green skills gap

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Tackling the skills crisis for a sustainable future

The role of Talent Acquisition in closing the green skills gap

Foreword

As business sustainability management becomes increasingly important, the recruitment industry has a unique opportunity to help organizations adapt by fostering innovative hiring practices that prioritize sustainability and build long-term resilience. Challenges should be seen as opportunities, and resistance to change seen as a problem to be solved.

As a global leader in talent acquisition services, AMS is well positioned to help organizations investigate the challenges ahead and forge a path for success.

To learn more, AMS reached out to talent leaders across a range of industries to examine trends and challenges related to the topic of green skills. We sought to understand the technical skills, knowledge, behaviours, and capabilities required to support a sustainable society, and to measure the extent of the green skills gap. The global survey reveals just how challenging it is to attract talent with green skills today and explores the reasons why. Potential barriers to bridging the green skills gap are investigated in our study. We also uncover the optimism that exists amongst talent leaders regarding bridging the green skills gap and propose critical actions organizations can take to respond to the challenges identified.

David Ingleson

Sector Managing Director, Energy Engineering and Industrials, AMS

Part 1

The rise of green skills

Sustainability is arguably the world’s most pressing concern. Around 1 million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, many within decades, due to human activities¹. Global energy-related CO2 emissions grew by 1.1% in 2023, increasing 410 million tonnes (Mt) to reach a new record high of 37.4 billion tonnes (Gt)². Forty percent of the world’s population lacks access to clean and safe drinking water³. And in the past 150 years, half of our planet’s agricultural topsoil has been lost⁴.

It’s not hard to see why, according to recent research conducted by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training⁵, working towards a more sustainable future is not only an opportunity for economic advancement, but in our best interests for the future of the planet.

To combat climate change, protect our limited resources, and build social inclusivity and equality, the world is turning its attention to the green economy. The green economy refers to a circular system that aims to bring about sustainable development by reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. The green economy encompasses various sectors and activities that promote low-carbon, resource-efficient, and inclusive practices.

If we want to address the green skills gap, we need to understand that all future job roles will require green skills.”

– Allen Blue

As the world focuses its efforts, important terms such as green talent, green jobs and green skills have emerged. These terms are often used interchangeably; however, they refer to distinct yet interconnected aspects of the transition to a sustainable economy.

Green jobs are jobs in various sectors that specifically contribute to preserving or restoring the environment⁶. These jobs aim to reduce the environmental impact of economic activities, enhance energy and resource efficiency, and promote sustainable practices. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), green jobs are those that:

Reduce consumption of energy and raw materials – these are jobs that focus on energy efficiency, renewable energy production, and sustainable resource management
Limit greenhouse gas emissions – these are positions that involve activities aimed at reducing carbon footprints, such as those in the renewable energy sector
Minimize waste and pollution – these are jobs in waste management, recycling, and pollution control
Protect and restore ecosystems – these are roles in conservation, reforestation, and sustainable agriculture

Examples of green jobs could include renewable energy technicians who install and maintain solar panels or wind turbines, energy auditors who assess energy use in buildings, or environmental engineers, who develop systems and technologies to reduce pollution and manage waste.

While green jobs remain critically important, the term green skills has risen to prominence over the past few years. Green skills are the building blocks of the transition to a green economy, and refer to the broader set of technical skills, knowledge, behaviors, and capabilities required to tackle the environmental challenges we face⁷, whether in traditionally green jobs or not. Green skills include capabilities like environmental awareness, sustainability reporting, creativity and innovation, or environmental impact assessment.

Industry perspectives: the increasing importance of green skills

Green skills, unlike traditional green jobs, are now being found – and sought after – in nearly every industry. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as according to Climate Impact Partners, two-thirds of the Fortune 500 companies now have at least one significant climate commitment to adhere to⁸.

In our research, we asked business and talent leaders to share their views on the prevalence of and need for green skills in their own industry, and across other sectors. What we found suggests a real shift in the long-held view that green skills are only vital in “green sectors”. The results indicate that leaders now agree that green skills are important or even crucial in the vast majority of industries, see Figure 1.

The original “green sectors” continue to top the list

Not surprisingly, the Energy sector is still deemed to be the sector in which it is most crucial to have green skills (even though the definition specifically stated ‘not renewables’), with nearly 90% of respondents marking it a crucial skillset. The Utilities sector held the second spot with 78% of respondents noting that green skills are crucial. And finally, around three quarters of talent leaders said both Industrials and Materials must have green skills to operate today.

New sector demands for green skills are emerging

While talent and business leaders were clear that green sectors will continue to need green talent, there was a clear indication that new industries are turning their attention to this requirement. More than half noted that the Education sector must have green skills. Likewise in Healthcare, with 47% of respondents marking this industry as having a crucial need. Our research showed that Consumer products, including discretionary products and staples, should be prioritizing this skillset as well, while 41% of respondents deemed that Real Estate must look for green skills to thrive in the future. The sectors deemed least likely to need green skills at this time included Tech, Communications and Financial Services.

These results showcase the rapidly increasing awareness that green skills are important or crucial for every sector of the economy. This is an important recognition of the need for all sectors to think about sustainability seriously, and to consider this through the lens of attracting green talent to build a workforce for the future. It’s a critical shift in the talent landscape with far-reaching implications for TA and HR leaders who are already having to rethink hiring strategies due to a global skills shortage amplified by declining birth rates.

The green skills gap: urgent need, short supply, unclear path

Unfortunately, while the appetite for green talent is in high demand, we found through our research that it remains in extremely limited supply. It is projected there will be a shortage of 7 million green energy workers by 2030⁹. Likewise, LinkedIn recently found that growth in demand for green skills is outpacing the increase in supply¹⁰. Our research shows that organizations are keenly aware that current approaches will not close the urgent gap (see Figure 2).

When respondents were asked how quickly they felt the green skills gap needed to be bridged so that we can deliver on our stated targets (e.g., keeping global temperatures in line with the Paris Agreement), 84% felt this needed to be done in the next 5 years, whilst only 7% felt that this would be achieved in 5 years with the current policies and commitments by government and business.

84% of respondents said something needs to be done urgently to address the green skills gap, but only 7% think something will

Barriers to closing the green skills gap

Given this disconnect, it’s vital to understand the barriers to bridging the gap. We asked our respondents which of several factors they believe most hinders the widespread adoption of green skills in the global workforce. Talent leaders were widely split in their responses (see Figure 3).

Insufficient partnerships, limited training opportunities, high investment costs, resistance to change, and a general lack of effective collaboration are all cited as potential barriers, with a nearly even split across each. With such a spread of issues at play, there clearly needs to be a multi-faceted approach to addressing the green skills gap. In the next section, we examine approaches that encapsulate holistic collaboration, a willingness to invest with a longer timeframe in mind for returns, more training and educational programmes linked to the development of green skills, more willingness to accept change, and policies and initiatives in government that directly address the problem at hand.

¹ UN Report: Nature’s Dangerous Decline ‘Unprecedented’; Species Extinction Rates ‘Accelerating’ – United Nations Sustainable Development
² CO2 Emissions in 2023 (iea.blob.core.windows.net)
³UN Report: Nature’s Dangerous Decline ‘Unprecedented’; Species Extinction Rates ‘Accelerating’ – United Nations Sustainable Development
⁴Impact of Sustainable Agriculture and Farming Practices (worldwildlife.org)
⁵Cedefop; OECD (2015). Green skills and innovation for inclusive growth. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
⁶What is a green job ? | International Labour Organization (ilo.org)
⁷IEMA – IEMA – Defining Green Skills
⁸Fortune Global 500 Climate Commitments | Climate Impact Partners
⁹Will a Green Skills Gap Put Climate Goals at Risk? | BCG
¹⁰Global Green Skills Report 2023 | LinkedIn

Part 2

Building green skills momentum

With the scale, complexity and scope of the challenge abundantly clear, our research turns to the opportunities and strategies that can help address the gap. Our findings are clear: there will not be a one-size-fits all solution for a global workforce to solve a global issue. Instead, there are multiple paths that leading companies are forging to build a foundation of green skills.

This section explores three key themes that emerged from our respondents – these are the activities that are gaining momentum among organizations and across industries. Our research uncovers the effectiveness of each today and presents several prospective opportunities to take the work further.

I. Promoting collaboration

Collaboration is essential to bridge the green skills gap. Moreover, effective collaboration needs to happen not only between government, business and the education sector but also with society at large (including the public and the media). Simply put, without holistic collaboration across all parties we will not solve the problem of the green skills gap and therefore climate change.

Effectiveness of partnerships today

Our research reveals that only 8% of organizations rate the collaboration between government, business and education as extremely effective today. On the flipside, nearly half of all respondents marked the current state of partnerships as only slightly effective, and a worrying 21% tell us it is not effective at all. See Figure 4.

What’s needed: Educational partnerships

Digging further, we asked organizations about the role that educational institutions play in today’s efforts to close the green skills gap. We specifically wanted to understand if tailored curricula could help strengthen the partnership model. A staggering 88% of talent leaders say this would be effective (see Figure 5). This is a significant call to action to all talent leaders to build strong connections with education providers and start influencing the content of curricula, so they align more closely to evolving industry needs.

What’s needed: Influence on policy

Similarly, we found that collaborating with government to influence the policy agenda is a key piece of the solution. 83% of talent leaders felt it would be effective to engage much more with government departments in an attempt to proactively shape the policies pertaining to the green skills agenda, rather than work in retrospect (see Figure 6). While it is not unusual to see large organizations influencing the policy agenda of government, talent leaders should think very carefully in terms of how they may be able to shape the green skills agenda, or at least encourage their executive committees to become involved.

II. Nurturing a green skills pipeline

Building green talent requires the training and development of green skills – the skills, knowledge, and competencies that enable individuals to contribute to sustainable development and environmental conservation. The concepts of green education and eco-schools have begun to take root around the world, with dedicated programming aimed at cultivating citizens and leaders who are equipped to make meaningful and sustainable shifts in their communities and countries.

Most of these initiatives incorporate a three-pillar approach, which focuses on a reduced environmental impact of the campus itself, increased health and wellbeing among the school and parent community and increased environmental literacy for students . Schools that are recognized for their innovative approaches include The Green School in Bali and the University of California in USA .
However, beyond these localized efforts, our research shows that a significant disparity still exists between the current state of broad green skills education and what is required for the future. Most existing educational programs fall short of equipping the population with the necessary knowledge and abilities.

Effectiveness of green education today

When it comes to the topic of how effective current educational programs are in equipping individuals with the green skills required for the labour market today, there seems to be a significant mismatch between what industry needs, and what educators are actually providing. We found that only 3% of talent leaders believe that mainstream educational programs are highly effective in preparing candidates for the green labour market. A staggering 59% of respondents gave a failing mark to current educational programs in their ability to prepare learners with adequate green skills. See Figure 7.

What’s needed: Green skills for everyone

Part of the challenge with green education today is its limited reach. As we noted above, there are several schools that embrace the principles of green education and provide high quality green skill building for their students. Our research clearly shows, however, that a much more global, democratized approach is vital. We asked respondents to tell us which demographic groups should be prioritized for green skills education, and the results are very clear: all groups need this training (see Figure 8).

While about 10% of our respondents argued that specific groups of learners would benefit most, nearly 60% agreed that green skills education is critical across all learner groups – from primary students in their earliest educational experiences through secondary students, college and university students, and through to current professionals.

With the short-term need increasing rapidly but with a long-term vision required, I don’t see any other choice than to tackle all demographics. All require attention.”