Training opportunities

The importance of supporting public sector leaders and staff on climate action was highlighted in the Scottish Government’s 2019 consultation and its responses. Climate change is a shared responsibility and must be embedded across all roles, not limited to environmental or sustainability leads. Both strong leadership and role-specific training are therefore essential to ensure staff understand their responsibilities and feel confident taking climate action.

A range of external training courses focused on the climate emergency and carbon literacy are listed below.

Training Opportunities for Senior Managers, Chief Executive Officers and Elected Members
  • Provider: The Royal Scottish Geographical Society

    The Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Climate Solutions qualification was launched in 2020, helping organisations embed climate change action at the level where it can achieve the most impact. The focus is on identifying and delivering on specific actions and commitments, both organisational and personal, to reduce carbon emissions. Check out the ‘Accelerator 2-hour course’ for managers and the ‘Professional course’.

  • Provider: Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE)

    APSE offers training courses for a range of roles, e.g., Elected Members, Leaders, Managers, and trainers. Click here for online training. Current courses include:

    Carbon Literacy for Elected Members
    Carbon Literacy for Leaders and Managers

Training Opportunities for Specialist Staff
The following training opportunities are aimed at staff with a specialist role within an organisation e.g. a Planner, a Procurement officer. Project Manager, Training officers etc. Such roles have an important part to play in policy development and implementation, project delivery and personal development.
  • Provider: Scottish Government

    Training for Procurement Professionals is free to all public sector employees on the Scottish Government Sustainable Procurement Tools website. To access the tools you need to register and log in thereafter. It has a bias towards Scope 3 emissions as it is geared towards procurement professionals as its primary audience. However, an increasing number of organisations are using it with their wider staff.

  • Provider: The Royal Scottish Geographical Society

    The Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Climate Solutions qualification was launched in 2020 helping organisations embed climate change action at the level where it can achieve the most significant impact. The focus is on identifying and delivering on specific actions and commitments, both organisational and personal, to reduce carbon emissions.

  • Provider: Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE)

    APSE offers training courses for a range of roles e.g. Elected Members, Leaders, Managers, trainers etc. Click here for on-line training. Current courses include:

    Carbon Literacy for Local Authorities
    Carbon Literacy Trainer

  • Provider: On-line THE SUPPLY CHANGE SUSTAINABILITY SCHOOL

    The School is free and allows you to access training in 5 different areas: Sustainability, Offsite, BIM, Lean and Management, and offers you the opportunity to attend training and networking events, gain CPD points, complete a self-assessment and get a bespoke action plan, complete e-learning modules and various training resources.

  • Provider: Scottish Enterprise

    New resources and support from Scottish Enterprise, including support with developing sustainability plans, a new Net Zero Accelerator Tool, and links to support for business.

Training for Practitioners
The following training opportunities are aimed at staff who are keen to know more about climate change, the climate emergency and net zero and are interested in career/personal development.
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