DEMAND for graduates in the UK with skills related to sustainability is booming. Academia is waking up to the need to train specialists in green architecture, chemistry and engineering.
Dean Millar founded the world’s first ever BSc course in Renewable Energy at Exeter University after working as an industry consultant.
He said: “A lot of companies were complaining that there was a lack of bright young people suitably trained to work in the renewables business.”
Now his course has around 90 students learning the ins and outs of biomass, tidal, solar and offshore wind power.
Their career prospects are incredibly bright. Employment opportunities are not just limited to the energy sector, but segue into the regulatory and, increasingly, investment sectors as well.
“The big boys are moving in. The returns to be had are significant, especially in terms of wind development,” said Millar. “Financial firms need expertise across the board so they can make sensible investment decisions.”
Students on York University’s Master’s course in Green Chemistry are ideally placed to take advantage of the growing demand in industry for graduates with waste minimization skills.
Professor James Clark is founder of York’s Green Chemistry Centre for Excellence and the world’s leading green chemistry journal, Green Chemistry. He said: “We are now talking to producers of automobiles, electronics, furniture and pharmaceuticals, people who need to use chemistry but don’t think of themselves as chemists.”
As waste production legislation becomes increasingly strict, the traditional emphasis on making as much of a chemical as possible is shifting towards minimizing the waste that process creates. “A lot of chemicals are made from petroleum, but we are developing sustainable ways to make carbon, typically from biomass such as dead plants and trees,” said professor Clark.
All of last year’s graduates quickly found employment, some receiving multiple job offers in a variety of different fields.
Li Li, a 26-year-old Chinese postgraduate student, graduated from York in 20xx. She said:
“I hadn’t heard about green chemistry in China. It was a new area and I was curious. Now the government back home needs people who know about these principles.”
Deep in the heart of Wales, 400 students at the Centre for Alternative Technology’s (CAT) Graduate School of the Environment are busy designing and building everything from high insulation wood housing to wind power turbines. With energy costs rising, building firms are increasingly looking to minimize the energy wasted heating and lighting homes, a service CAT students are well-equipped to provide.
A new institute is being built to meet the burgeoning demand for places and a distance learning facility will be launched next September so foreign students can complete CAT courses from home.
The expertise being taught on these courses is essential to a continually expanding range of companies and government authorities. Yet there is a larger goal at stake; the students are at the forefront of the battle against climate change. In the words of Dean Millar, “If we’re going to save the planet, we need to start turning these people out in big numbers.”