Green trades
Solar, efficiency, restoration, waste, and land management.
Focus — Education, Knowledge & Human Capability — Blue- and green-economy skills
BLUE- AND GREEN-ECONOMY SKILLS
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve the skills available for green and blue economy work for the young people and workers seeking that work.
Why this area
BLUE- AND GREEN-ECONOMY SKILLS
IN CONTEXT.
New sectors fail for want of trained people near the work. Ideas qualify when the employer, the trade, and the wage are identified alongside the training.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Blue trades
Fisheries, aquaculture, coastal works, and marine services.
Employer links
Training tied to work that exists.
Certification
Recognition that travels with the worker.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A BLUE- AND GREEN-ECONOMY SKILLS
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where the skills available for green and blue economy work fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — completion, placement rate, wage after training, or employer demand met.
- Explains what the young people and workers seeking that work do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of the skills available for green and blue economy work in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier vocational training programmes did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the young people and workers seeking that work, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — trainees, cohorts, or placements.
- A stated measure of success — completion, placement rate, wage after training, or employer demand met.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves employment, income, and local capability for the young people and workers seeking that work.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named training provider, employer, or trade association able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of the skills available for green and blue economy work in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the young people and workers seeking that work or the training provider, employer, or trade association.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about blue- and green-economy skills with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
BLUE- AND GREEN-ECONOMY SKILLS IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about the skills available for green and blue economy work that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.