The C-TERRE project will shed light on green skills needs
The C-TERRE project is funded under the Skills Investment Plan (PIC) which aims at upskilling the least qualified people and achieving more equal access to training.
The project's main hypothesis is that shifts in employment driven by the ecological transition yield a renewal of skills which could lead to opportunities for low-skilled workers, even though these new skills are not yet stabilized. This hypothesis is bolstered by previous research and by prospective studies conducted in several economic sectors and aiming at identifying green skills.
A secondary hypothesis, which is a corollary of the preceding one, is that the emergence of these new or changing skills should raise questions about their identification, acquisition, development, validation, and recognition among stakeholders at various levels (productive organization, HRM, professional branches). We consider that these questions should be similar to those arisen in the 90’s and 2000’s about the measurement of skills, prior to their management.
Compared to this early period, the notion of skills is now much better delimited, and we can say that the skills to identify do not exist as such but stem in professional pathways and trades, develop in work activities, and objectivate in HMR tools reflecting a compromise as to their definition.
The project is organized around three main lines of research which will be investigated in relation to the specific context of the ecological transition:
- Training and professional integration: What are the links between training and employment for young workers who have received environmental training and/or accessed to green jobs? Is continuing vocational training a means of matching or adapting jobseekers and workers skills with the needs related to the ecological transition? What are the experiences and professional projects of workers in this context?
- Instrumentation of skills management: the project will focus on a particular support measure designed to help professional branches develop employment and skills (EDEC [1]), investigate HRM procedures and tools regarding green skills and how they impact workers. Transformation of working practices and trades: How does the ecological transition transform working practices? How do workers react to the new operating practices? How does the ecological transition impact on-the-job learning and knowledge transmission?
A fourth phase of the project will tackle the operational reach of the notion of skills regarding trades connected to the ecological transition and follow a more theoretical approach with an international review of literature, a workshop, and a final conference.
The C-TERRE project will focus on three professional sectors: the retail and building trades and the social and solidarity economy, and two regions: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur.
Its mixed-method approach will combine data from Céreq’s Génération and Defis surveys, observations of work practices and interviews.
End of project: December 2022
Project team: Liza Baghioni et Emmanuel Sulzer (coordinators), Nathalie Moncel, Samira Mahlaoui, Delphine Béraud, Anne Delanoë, Olivia Foli (research associate), Mathieu Hocquelet, Zora Mazari, Fred Séchaud, Aline Valette-Wursthen.
Contact : Emmanuel Sulzer or Liza Baghioni
[1]Developed in 2005, the EDEC (development agreement for the employment and the skills - engagement de développement de l'emploi et des compétences) is a contract reached by public authorities and professional branches, covered by joint financing and designed to draw up an overview of the economic, technological and industrial changes underway in a given sector.