Thinking green is a worldwide buzzword these days, but for South Africa it’s definitely a bit more than just a flash in the pan. Thinking green is here and it’s here to stay. After the 2008 recession, the Government put its money where its mouth was, and pledged to spend 11% of its US$7.5 billion stimulation package on environmental issues in the hope of improving the green sector.
This has been far from an empty promise, with South Africa playing host to the 2010 Green Summit, and a pact between the Government, labour unions, private sector and civil society to improve the economy and infrastructure through green design and development. The investment from the stimulation packet will go to four main areas: natural resource management, agriculture, transport and energy. The Adzuna team thinks that is very good news because growing industries and the creation of new exciting jobs for all you lovely job hunters tend to come hand in hand: we should be seeing 300,000 new green jobs by 2020, to be precise. Current thinking is that at least 80,000 of these will be in manufacturing, construction, operations and maintenance.
Here are four good reasons why you should consider looking for a green job:
- There are loads of jobs to apply for
- There are a wide variety roles and fields to go into
- You could be eligible for bursaries to pay for further education or retraining
- It serves to boost the economy and is also good for the environment… what’s not to like??
Green jobs aren’t just about solar power, wind turbines and hydraulic dams. Pretty much every area of work can be tailored to have a green angle. If retraining for a new career is not on your radar, fret not. Environmentally-friendly jobs are popping up everywhere and in every field.. If you like science you could become an environmental scientist, technology specialist, pharmaceutical engineer, green engineer or an environmental analyst. If science isn’t really your bag and you prefer design, no problem, perhaps you could turn your hand to a role as a product designer, architect or urban planner. If you like animals, plants and the great outdoors you could specialise in animal conservation or sustainable landscaping. And it doesn’t just stop there either, there’s plenty for techy people too, you could develop software used by energy companies and model simulations.
One the best aspects of the mountain of new jobs being created in this arena is the huge scope it gives to tackle the youth employment rate! Youth and the Green Economy is a wonderfully informative website full of info for any budding green eco warriors. It’s your one-stop-shop for news, careers and internship info, instructions on how and where to get bursaries, green technology updates and updates on green celebrity happenings. If you aren’t sure what you want to do after finishing high school or you fancy a little bit of a career change, it is definitely recommended!
If we have whet your appetite with all things green, go and have a search on Adzuna and find all the environment-related you could apply to. You know you want to!