Over 200 apprenticeships are now supporting England’s drive to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, with hundreds more set to become greener.

Designed and updated by thousands of employers with support from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE), the green apprenticeships include six with the King’s Coronation emblem in celebration of the outstanding job they are doing with supporting sustainability, an issue close to our monarch’s heart.

It comes as our nation prepares to celebrate Green Careers Week from 6 to 11 November.

Jennifer Coupland, chief executive of IfATE, said: “There are so many ways to be green and help our country hit its net zero target, including in the workplace. Apprenticeships are now leading the way with training people up for sustainable ways of working right across the economy and we’re delighted to celebrate that through Green Careers’ Week.

“I look forward to the rollout of hundreds more green apprenticeships and would like to urge thousands more employers to train up new recruits by employing apprentices.”

IfATE’s work on making apprenticeships more sustainable includes:

1. Upgrades to existing apprenticeships, for example to train aspiring electricians to install and maintain domestic heat pumps, solar panels, and electric vehicle charging points.

2. Specialist occupations, like ecologist and countryside ranger, and

3. Apprenticeships designed to help make businesses greener, including for at degree level for sustainability business specialists.

Tobias DeSouza, from London, who decided to train through a Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Specialist apprenticeship with Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP (at level 4 – equivalent to foundation degree), said: “I’ve been given the opportunity to act on the societal and environmental issues I wanted to tackle, which has been tremendously rewarding. It’s helped me to develop in the role while also improving my transferable skills which I can carry into my future work. My own long-term ambition is to share best practice and my experience with communities in developing countries so they can begin to embed these principles into their businesses and economies from an early stage. There are however, so many different opportunities to forge a unique career in corporate responsibility and sustainability and a whole host of fields to specialise in with a qualification as broad as this. I would recommend it to anyone.”

Caitlin Sweeney, from York, who decided to train through a Sustainability Business Specialist apprenticeship with Nestle (at level 7 with integrated degree), said: “Environmental issues are going to be one of the biggest challenges we face within my lifetime. I knew I wanted to go onto further study in some capacity but it wasn’t realistic to juggle a traditional university degree alongside full-time work and other commitments. Hearing about this apprenticeship model of being able to study alongside working seemed like a good way of balancing all the things I wanted to achieve.”