What skills do we need?

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What skills do I need to learn to act for climate and community?

There’s no one answer to that. The one certainty is that in times of rapid, complex change you (and your organisation/discipline/community) need to learn, and continue learning, no matter what existing knowledge, skills or role you have.

There might be a different focus depending on the domain, context or challenge, but:

Within ‘skills for climate and community’ as we have termed it, there are transversal, or underpinning skills, essential to all action, sometimes known as Sustainability Competences.
These include the knowledge, skills and values needed to imagine and work together to create a sustainable future as well as adapt to a changing present. Example framework: European GreenComp.
These split roughly into Navigating complexity, Creativity, Collaboration and Leadership, and they’re not so different from those found in, for example, the new UK core skills framework or SFIA. What has shifted - radically - is the purpose, values and knowledge needed to apply them in the pursuit of a better future for people and planet.

Alongside these core skills there might be other, overlapping knowledge and skills gaps:

Climate literacy

Includes climate science, an understanding of the interactions between people and the climate system and the options to address human-caused climate change.

Example framework: https://www.metlink.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/A-Curriculum-for-Climate-Literacy.pdf

Nature connection

Includes our relationship with nature and natural systems and our role in stewarding a sustainable planet.

Example frameworks: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/national-impact/national-education-nature-park.html

Green skills

Commonly interpreted to mean the technical, technological and domain specific skills necessary to deliver decarbonisation and other climate related innovation.

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The ‘essential skills’ we need for climate and community

The First Hand skills focus

Our skills framework