What Is Your Unique Skill and How Can It Be a Green Skill?
By Mikkel Navarro Hansen, CEO Aprendio
In my work, there is a lot of discussion about the green transition. During my interactions with people, I have noticed a widespread understanding and acceptance that for the green transition to take place, we need innovation, particularly in new technologies. For these technologies to work in practice, we need people with the right skills and competencies. These skills and competencies, when related to the green transition, are what we call "green skills".
But, could you define what a green skill is with a little more detail, please?
Well, assume you are a seafarer. You work on a ship that transports ammonia. Typically used for fertiliser, but now one of the promising new green fuels (when available in a fully green version). As a seafarer, you possess critical skills for our green transition. You can use these skills in the future when your ship will transport green ammonia produced by wind power plants in Patagonia and distribute to the rest of the world.
You could also dream of a job installing power-to-x plants (PtX). These plants will be a critical element in converting renewable energy produced in one location when the source is available (imagine the North Sea on a windy day at a windmill farm), into X. This can be for example hydrogen, which can be converted into other fuels, stored, and transported to where it needs to be used, when it needs to be used. What green skills would your dream job require from you? Probably the skills you learned when working offshore commissioning oil and gas drilling rigs.
There is also a bright future working with district heating, an enabler of delivering green heating (and cooling) at scale to cities. As a city planner, many of the processes you undergo would be the same: involving communities, contractors, and utility companies. So – reuse these skills in a new technology setting and implement them.
Yes, that sounds nice, there are still job opportunities for me out there – but what does it mean? How do I upskill to work green?
My point is that there might not be something like “a specific green skill,” but instead sets of skills needed to learn to apply green technologies. We need to learn how green systems work and interact with the surroundings.
With the above example of ammonia in mind, green skilling would build on the seafarer’s existing skills on loading, transporting, cooling, and offloading ammonia on ships. Volumes will increase, with more cargoes to be transported on different trades than before, but the basics are the same. What will be new – and require new skills built on top of existing ones – will be when the same ship transporting ammonia will use ammonia as a fuel itself. This will require a whole new approach because the ammonia-based e-fuel will be used in different engine systems with corresponding new safety and operational measures to be taken.
So, the conclusion is to build on your existing skills and add to them with for example Aprendio. Get an introduction to the offshore wind sector, learn about wave energy technologies, district heating (all with the Energy and Climate Academy) or get the black belt in battery operation with Marstal Navigationsskole, energy systems efficiency with SIMAC, efficient ship handling with FORCE Technologies, with more green topics to come like carbon capture technologies, power to x, new fuels etc.
So, why not ask yourself: What is your unique skill, and how will you use it to work for the green transition? If you are a journalist, a carpenter, a cashier, a blacksmith, a nurse, a rocket engineer, a soldier, an investor, an able seafarer, a data scientist, an innovator, a CFO, a marine engineer – how will you use your skills in a way they become green skills?
