Building green skills through regional partnerships
A new book chapter co-authored by MMTC Director Leona Achtenhagen Opens in new window. examines how regional partnerships can support small and medium-sized enterprises in developing transferable green skills through vocational education and training.
MMTC Director Leona Achtenhagen, together with Claudia Achtenhagen and Claudius Audick, has co-authored the chapter “Regional Chamber Partnerships to Advance the Green Upskilling of Small and Medium Enterprises in Germany.”
The chapter addresses Project Drawdown’s focus on products, partnerships and procurement by presenting the work of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) in Stuttgart, Germany, in supporting the green upskilling of regional small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Set within Germany’s distinctive vocational education system, the chapter draws on the regional IHK’s experience of interacting and collaborating with SMEs to understand and respond to their support needs for the vocational education and training of apprentices.
The authors highlight how the IHK has advanced its vocational education agenda beyond a primary focus on occupation-specific skills to include transferable green skills. These include cross-functional collaboration, problem-solving and data literacy, systems thinking, and change leadership – capabilities that can help organisations and their employees navigate the demands of the green transition.
The chapter concludes by outlining considerations for partnerships between regional associations and SMEs seeking to enhance green upskilling.
The chapter appears in An Organisational Guide to Skills for Green Workforce Transformation External link, opens in new window., edited by Karen Cripps and Candy Ho and published by Routledge.
The contribution connects with MMTC’s research interests in sustainability and transformation by highlighting how collaboration between organisations and regional actors can support the development of capabilities needed for a greener economy.
