Royal Mail has put £1 million of its tuition fee on the table to help businesses build the green skills the UK needs to benefit from, not just cope with, the transition to a low carbon economy. Plumbers, electricians and other tradesmen are among the first to benefit.
The money can be used for a broad sweep of government-sanctioned green training, from low-carbon and electric vehicle infrastructure to energy-efficient construction and sustainable supply chains. It is now open for businesses and organizations in England and Wales, and the timing is deliberate: the gap between the jobs created by the change and the people qualified to fill them is widening by the month.
That disparity is the real issue here. Britain is on its way to clean energy, mass electrification and system-wide emissions reductions, a shift that promises lower energy bills, lower operating costs, resource efficiency and greater resilience to fluctuating fuel prices. The catch is that nothing happens without workers who can install, wire and build it to scale, and that’s exactly where the country is short.
For small firms in particular, opportunities are more visible than invisible. This fund can support the training of tradespeople to install solar panels or heat pumps, or to install charging infrastructure for electric vans, as well as professionals taking graduate courses such as environmental experts or sustainability business experts. In other words, it combines the workbench and the boardroom.
Miles Durrant, Royal Mail’s Head of Climate Strategy, put the problem down to one of diffusion rather than absorption. “As low carbon technology is developed, the challenge is not just innovation but deployment,” he said. “Advancements in areas such as electrification and sustainable construction must be accompanied by workers who can use them at scale and reduce costs. This fund is about helping to build that capacity across the economy.”
The scale of the award is hard to ignore. The government’s clean energy jobs plan expects the industry to support more than 860,000 jobs by 2030, nearly doubling the current workforce. Industry Minister Chris McDonald said apprenticeships were key to closing that gap. “The clean energy transition is expected to support more than 860,000 jobs by 2030, which means we need to double the number of workers we have now,” he said. “Apprenticeship programs like these will help train the next generation to find good paying jobs for life, ensuring we continue to grow our skilled workforce to support the economy while tackling youth unemployment.”
On the face of it, a delivery company banking on green apprenticeships seems like a stretch. The concept of Royal Mail is that it cannot reach its destination on its own. As one of the UK’s largest employers, and the only operator that delivers to all 32 million addresses in the country, it is in the midst of an economic center that must shrink.
Its Zero Zero Initiative strategy has already begun, from electrifying ships to reducing domestic flights, but the target of net-zero emissions by 2040 depends on suppliers, customers and infrastructure moving together. Funding capabilities across the wider economy, in fact, Royal Mail invests in the conditions it needs to in order to achieve its mission. It’s a theme Business Matters readers will recognize from the net-zero divide unfolding across the SME sector, where ambition often trumps resources.
Sarah Mukherjee, chief executive of the Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals, said large companies using their tax this way could take everyone’s dial off. “The evidence is clear that the green economy is one of the UK’s strongest areas for job growth,” she said. “Royal Mail’s decision to open tax funding for apprenticeships is a strong example of how large organizations can use their influence to build skills in a practical and risky way, supporting businesses across the economy.”
He added that the social dividend could be just as large. “With almost a million young people in the UK currently out of employment, education or training, initiatives like this show that the transition to a low carbon economy can be a powerful engine of opportunity. Green skills are not only important for delivering zero, they are important for creating inclusive pathways to meaningful work.”
The money comes from the tuition fee, a charge that applies to employers with a wage bill of £3 million or more. With 130,000 people on its books, Royal Mail is one of the country’s biggest tax payers, and large employers are able to give unused funds to other organizations rather than let them lapse. This green pot of talent sits alongside a £1 million levy fund for a company that runs small and medium-sized businesses with up to 250 employees, an effort that has already expanded once after the first round was oversubscribed.
For SME owners weighing whether to share, the calculation is straightforward enough. Green energy is becoming a commercial imperative rather than having the good stuff, the training being mandated by the government, and someone else footing the bill. Thanks to a national skills initiative for the accumulation of green energy jobs, firms that build these skills early are likely to find themselves at the front of the job queue, not chasing behind.
Applications are now open. Businesses in England and Wales can apply for the Royal Mail Levy Transfer Fund in the company’s small business support area.
