ESF Priority 2: METaL

Feb 28, 2022

The METaL project (Materials and Manufacturing Education Training and Learning) is an industry demand led project focused on technical training modules to address skills shortages and provide industry with the skills required to thrive in a knowledge led sector.

METaL has been made possible through funding from the European Social Fund through the Welsh Government.

Net Zero and Skills

The need to tackle climate change has become increasingly apparent across the world. In parallel, the potential economic opportunities of the transition to a low carbon economy are becoming clearer, with domestic and global markets in low carbon technologies estimated to be worth billions of pounds to the UK economy over the coming decades. All sectors of the UK will go through a transformation on the journey to net zero and this will impact the workers and communities they sustain (UK Government Green Jobs taskforce).

The aim of Welsh Government is for Wales to be a net zero country by 2050.

This will be done by developing a plan to preserve the existing 113,000 manufacturing jobs and potentially creating more than 30,000 new skilled jobs by 2050 (Working together to meet net zero: All Wales plan:2021)

Intelligence suggests that there are around 6,000 businesses and 9,700 jobs across the low carbon and renewable energy sector, alone, across Wales. (Data Cymru)

In order to support existing manufacturing jobs and develop new skilled jobs in the green economy, Regional Skills Partnerships (RSPs) across Wales are working together to help identify the emerging green jobs and undertake an assessment of associated skills gaps.

To contribute to this challenge the METaL Project have worked to create online courses which look at several areas which can raise awareness of the issues and contribute to Net Zero going forward.

Environmental Impact and Sustainability

This course provides practical guidance on how to obtain environmental permits, guidance on setting up an environmental management system, provide businesses with knowledge of carbon capture use and storage (CCUS) for carbon neutrality, ensuring compliance with ISO14001, an understanding of the role technology can play in reducing environmental impact and the potential to reduce costs and improve company image.

An Introduction to the Circular Economy

On this course, we explore the concept of sustainability, examine where we are in terms of global sustainability and how we have got to this point. We will then examine some of the most crucial global sustainability challenges and how circular economy offers us a new path to overcome these.

Find out more about what METal can offer