Australia\u2019s unions are urging the country\u2019s parliament to support government plans to match worker skills to jobs in new, green industries.<\/p>\n
The draft National Green Skills Agreement<\/a> announced by the government on 23 October was welcomed by national union federation ACTU<\/a>. The agreement sets out to equip thousands of apprentices in emerging and existing industries with the skills to help tackle climate change. Under the plan, mandatory green skills would be included in all apprentice training from the end of 2010. Australia\u2019s unions are urging the country\u2019s parliament to support government plans to match worker skills to jobs in new, green industries. The draft National Green Skills Agreement announced by the government on 23 October was welcomed by national union federation ACTU. The agreement sets out to equip thousands of apprentices in emerging and existing industries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4,79],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions\/375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n\u201cThe skills of our plumbers, construction workers, electricians and other specialist trades workers will be fundamental in ensuring that Australia is able to move quickly and flexibly in creating a sustainable, low carbon economy,\u201d said ACTU president Sharan Burrow. \u201cIt is estimated that we are going to need to re-train and upskill about 3 million workers in the next 20 years to meet the challenge.\u201d
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\nShe added that unions are already working hard to promote green skills. \u201cThe Plumbers\u2019 Union (CEPU) in Victoria has already set up a \u201cPlumbing Industry Climate Change Action Centre\u201d which is aims to up-skill the state\u2019s 21,000 plumbers and set up similar centres nationally,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cWater management is one area where we are creating new jobs and expertise and an area in which Australia can lead the world.\u201d
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\nUrging the Australian parliament to support the government plan, she said: \u201cWe urgently need national policies in place to drive investment and a fast but fair transition to a low carbon economy.\u201d
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\nShe said action was needed because Australian was lagging behind when it came to claiming a slice of the global market in clean tech products, services, expertise and technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"