Harness the skills of the next generation

Whether you're a business, self-employed or a professional in your field, you can get involved with Green Talent. It's an innovative initiative targeted at young people, which aims to increase their knowledge about our dependence on nature and also show how businesses like yours are going to be adapting as we move towards a low-carbon economy.

The Eden Project, RSPB and Kew created this online community and piloted a range of environmental experiences in some of the most innovative learning centres in the country. There are lots of ways to get involved, here's a quick guide for starters:

Get involved in the online community

Businesses and professionals can join the forum and earn points in the same way as students or individuals. This is a great opportunity for skilled professionals, businesses and people with 'real-life experience' to really help younger generations. Whether you're a self-employed gardener, marketing guru or the managing director of a large PLC, the forum provides a place where you can share your skills and expertise with young people who need it.

You can also pose questions and raise topics with younger audiences who often have new ways to tackle old problems. A great way to harness their skills, tap into youth insight and test out new ideas in a completely open way.

Provide work experience and placements

If you already provide work experience placements to young people then Green Talent provides an excellent opportunity to enhance this experience both for young people and the business. You don't have to be a green sustainable business to get involved, it's about the journey you're on. We have developed an insert for the students' work experience logbook, which you can purchase from us by emailing info@greentalent.org

Provide talks and educational visits to groups of young people

We are always looking for businesses to provide young people with educational visits, work placements or give talks. This can be drawn up by you in conjunction with one of the environmental centres and will inform and inspire young people about the ways the sustainability and low-carbon agenda is affecting how you operate and the opportunities that are opening up for young people in the future

Sponsor young people to take part

You could also consider sponsoring a young person to take part in a live experience before they come to a work experience in your own business.

Why should you get involved?

Green for growth

The government's commitment to 34% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and at least 80% by 2050 will have considerable impact on all sectors of society. Just about everything we do will need to change. New legislation and changing financial markets, combined with a rising demand from consumers for all things green, is forcing businesses to be flexible and ready to seize new opportunities.

Green is the new IT

The transition to a low-carbon economy and the adaptation measures required, represent one of the biggest opportunities we've faced since the IT revolution in the early 90s. The so-called 'green sector' has many similarities with the IT sector of 20 years ago. The last 20 years has provided extraordinary opportunities for wealth and job creation around the world. Companies like Google, Yahoo! and Amazon are among the most successful companies in the world; we believe the scale and opportunity of the shift to low-carbon will be even greater.