In one of our guest blogs for the Greater Manchester Green Summit, Jo Ahmed MBE, Practice Senior Partner for the North West at Deloitte discusses Greater Manchester’s plan to become carbon neutral by 2038 and how education, partnerships, and training programmes are vital to support the city region’s green transition.
As Greater Manchester continues its journey towards becoming carbon neutral by 2038, much of the focus has rightly been placed on infrastructure, housing and investment.
However, achieving these ambitions will depend just as much on people as it will on policy.
One of the clearest examples of this is retrofit.
Greater Manchester has set out bold plans to decarbonise its homes, schools and public buildings, supported by funding and frameworks designed to accelerate delivery. The scale of the challenge is significant. Around 887,000 homes, 700 schools and more than 2,700 public sector buildings will require retrofitting in the years ahead to meet decarbonisation targets.
Yet, as our recent pro-bono work with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) highlighted, a shortage of skilled workers remains one of the most significant barriers to progress. To meet regional retrofit targets, the North West will require thousands of additional workers in the coming years.
The challenge is not simply about creating jobs, but about building a sustainable pipeline of talent and ensuring young people see retrofit and green construction as viable, long-term careers.
Through our work with the GMCA, we engaged with stakeholders across housing, education and industry to understand how early careers pathways into retrofit could be strengthened. This has brought together partners including housing associations such as the Guinness Partnership, construction firms like Seddon Construction and training providers such as the Retrofit Academy to better connect education with industry need.
Our region’s leading universities are already providing employers with hands-on insights to improve green skills, from Manchester Metropolitan University’s work around the hydrogen skills framework and its new Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Practitioner Apprenticeship, to the University of Salford’s Energy House Labs.
However, many smaller retrofit businesses told us they want to hire apprentices but lack the capacity to support them, highlighting the need for shared pathways into green jobs.
Building on this foundation, Deloitte is also working with social enterprise Good People to bring the Net Zero Careers Accelerator to the region.
This programme is designed to address the UK’s growing green skills gap by connecting communities with training, employers and opportunities in the low-carbon economy. Through community engagement, skills matching and employer partnerships, the initiative aims to create more inclusive routes into green roles while supporting the region’s economic and environmental ambitions.
Ultimately, delivering net zero is not only about technology or targets. It’s about equipping people with the skills and opportunities needed to take part in the transition.
Greater Manchester has the ambition, the partnerships and the innovation to lead the way. By continuing to invest in green skills and early career pathways, we can ensure the region’s transition is not only sustainable, but inclusive and economically resilient too.
