The “Curiosity Connections Green Futures” project uses real-life role models to inspire children into green careers.
The hands-on green careers kit enables children to understand the job opportunities available to build a sustainable future for our planet. Connecting their skills and abilities into the local and national transitions to Net Zero.
Explore the “Inspire Green Futures” green career card deck
The Green Careers Kit
The Inspire Green Futures resources are based on a top-trump style card deck, each card featuring a real person in a green job. The cards provide a taster of the huge expanse of types of green careers available, as well as showcasing the diversity of people in those roles and pathways into these jobs.
Explore the “Inspire Green Futures” card deck online – discovering interesting details about each featured person – from earnings to top career tips!
The cards have been deployed in schools and communities – using hands-on workshops to enable young people to explore the card deck, connecting with the people behind the card and discovering the future role they can play in the green transition.
Educators can choose from a selection of hands-on, curriculum and Gatsby benchmark linked activities, which link to career pathways and skills development.
Teachers and Community Leaders in the West of England – you can book UWE Bristol’s Inspire Sustainability team in to deliver workshops to your groups.
If you’re not local, you can enquire about the adaptable workshop packs and buying your own card packs – only £10 a pack.
Why Green Jobs?
We need to reduce emissions to avoid the worst effects of climate change – that’s what Net Zero is all about. All sectors of the economy need to adapt – that means new jobs, but also many changes to existing job roles. The government’s Net Zero Strategy has an ambition to support 2 million green jobs by 2050.
A Green Job is any job that contributes towards:
- protecting the environment
- reducing emissions
- lowering the carbon footprint
“Analysis by Ecuity found that in order for the WECA [West of England Combined Authority] region to meet net zero by 2030, a further 50,383 total net jobs would be required.
“This would consist of 29,669 direct jobs and a further 20,715 indirect jobs as the wider supply chain would mobilise to support the increased demand for low-carbon technologies and infrastructure.”
From the West of England’s Green Skills Market Analysis report in 2021.
For more information about growth of local green jobs visit the West of England’s Labour Market Information (LMI).
Project Reach
The Inspire Green Futures card packs were designed in collaboration with “My Future My Choice” in 2024. The Inspire Sustainability team then deployed these green job sessions in January 2025, reaching over 8,000 KS2 and KS3 children in the West of England. In addition, they led mini-Green summits specially designed to engage 1,000 children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and in alternative learning provision (ALP). To maximise awareness and support for green careers, the project involved families wherever possible, particularly at big events, such as the Festival of Nature in Bristol and Bath.
By July 2026 over 11,000 young people and families had taken part in Green Future events.
What’s next?
As the regional funding comes to a close, the Inspire Green Futures cards have been launched as a national resource – card packs are available to buy online and bespoke training packages are available for teachers and companies who wish to lead workshops.
Email the team to enquire about these training sessions.
Curriculum integration
Finding time to truly integrate careers into the curriculum is a challenge – but the Inspire Sustainability team have successfully piloted short training sessions for teachers during which they identify careers featured on the cards that can be “dropped” into their lessons – read more about these sessions and the curriculum integration of the card packs here.
Career Resources
Inspire Green Futures links to various amazing skill and career development tools and resources. Explore them below:
Career Pilot – children from 11 years up can search potential job opportunities but also build their career profile to explore their skills, their interests, their values.
Skills Builder – students can take a deep dive into identifying their skills and get guidance in how to build their essential skills.
WISE – has a quick personality quiz – “My Skills My Life” – that identifies student’s strengths. Jobs that align with these strengths are then highlighted, but you can also see relevant green jobs on the online profiles here.
Parents/Carers
And it’s not just for students – parents and carers have a crucial role to play in career’s of their young people – if you’re a parent/career, please explore how you can support your young person here.
The West of England Combined Authority funded the Inspire Sustainability team at UWE Bristol 2024 – 2026 to engage over 11,000 local young people with the green careers needed to achieve Net Zero.
