Worlds apart

The market for human talent is going global. So is the market for business-led R&D. All the more need for clarity on the role of sustainability skills, says Sara Parkin.

The home country is no longer the automatic first choice for company investment in R&D. There’s a global ‘war for talent’ going on, as the Leadership Trust’s chief executive, Paul Winter, puts it. Especially in the search for emerging leaders.

But even to those of us crawling all over everything with a magnifying glass, there seems to be no visible connection (logical or otherwise) between the UK government’s debate about future skills and research agendas, and its debate about sustainable development. It’s as if it has been holding them on two different planets. Read all the reports it has generated about skills and innovation, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that surviving in a globally competitive marketplace is a simple matter of extrapolating the past – only bigger, better and faster.

Oh, and perhaps extending the definition of ‘manufacturing’ to embrace the fruits of biological as well as electrical and mechanical engineering. Yet its sustainable development strategy is being renewed right now [see GF47, ‘The Second Coming’], while its White Papers on energy and on sustainable consumption and production signal strongly towards future markets for low-carbon, affordable and secure supplies of goods, services and just about everything. No wonder business is unsure where to put how much money.

And no wonder universities aren’t sure which research centres or courses to invest in. What skills are needed for the workforce and citizenry of the future? In particular, how should future leaders of business, governments, public services or, indeed, voluntary organisations and charities, be trained?

What sort of research will deliver the goods and services that the markets of 2020 will lap up? Both the demand side (employers) and the supply side (colleges, universities) are getting mixed messages from the main market maker – government. Add to that the publication of a recent CBI report, claiming that UK companies are at a competitive disadvantage due to excessive environmental regulation – in the same month as the DTI launched its Corporate Social Responsibility Academy.

No wonder that any member of the public still listening thinks it just adds up to a bunch of blokes who have lost their way big time. So, hey, let’s not bother about anything until the geezers in charge have made up their minds! Despite all this, a new generation of ‘sustainability literate’ leaders is now coming on stream.

And in the UK most get some sort of exposure to environmental, ethical or sustainability issues through the school curriculum. A growing number (if the rapidly rising membership of college and university groups like People and Planet are anything to go by) are fired up by contributing to peace, ecological security and social justice in our troubled world. Employers generally don’t want sustainability ‘specialists’, but rather regular sets of knowledge and skills with a ‘sustainability supplement’.

That way, all employees can act and decide in a way that favours sustainable development at work and as responsible citizens. But first someone has to build the capacity of the teachers and trainers – plus the policy makers in HM Treasury. Otherwise, the race for economic success for the UK, and the race for creating a more sustainable way of life here and worldwide, will continue to diverge. And then everyone would be losers.

8 September 2004

Sara Parkin