Welcome to The Green Buzz
We believe everyone should aim high when planning their career path. This includes asking, "How green are my options?" With Green Buzz, you can match your natural strengths to the green career options available to you.
“The danger for most of us is not that we aim too high and miss our target, but we aim too low and reach it.” – Michaelangelo
What would you like to do?
Find out more before you start?
Green Buzz Quiz and how your personality can help you choose a greener career
Green Buzz is designed to help young people explore green careers that match their personality strengths.
The Green Buzz Quiz has been developed by Careers Adviser and author David Hodgson with NCW and Green Careers Week sponsors.
It is based on type theory of personality developed by psychologist Carl Jung and refined by Myers-Briggs, David Keirsey and other researchers. You self-identify your preferences across four different parts of your personality. There are no ‘wrong’ answers, so it is not a test. It helps us better understand ourselves and our friends and family. It is designed to be a useful starting point to build self-awareness as part of discussions with careers teachers, advisers, family members and training/education course providers about future options.
Understanding our personality preferences can help us make more informed decisions about the choices we face in all areas of our lives. We tend enjoy and perform better on tasks that use our natural strengths. If you’re right-handed you would probably enjoy and perform better on tasks using your right hand such as, throwing a ball, gardening, cooking or writing a list by hand.
In the QUIZ you’ll choose your personality preferences, be matched to an animal, and see suggestions of green careers and skills that could make the most of your strengths.
What is a Green Job?
Our colleagues from Nesta have studied jobs from a green perspective. They measured and combined three dimensions of ‘greenness’: the proportion of green skills asked for, the average industry greenhouse gases emissions and the time spent on green tasks. The career suggestions provided for each personality animal are jobs which rank among the best across these three dimensions.
For more information visit: nesta.org.uk
Qualifications and Apprenticeships
Our colleagues at WorldSkills UK have provided the following overview (September 2024):
Apprenticeships and technical education are credible and prestigious career pathways into the world of work, including green careers.
Over the years, apprenticeships and technical qualifications have been reliable and in-demand qualifications that get you work ready and provide employers with the people they need. They are continuously reviewed and developed to ensure they remain relevant, and this is true for ‘green’ apprenticeships and qualifications as well. Across agriculture, environmental and animal care, engineering and manufacturing, construction and infrastructure, legal and accounting, transport and logistics and digital sectors you’ll find different qualifications and apprenticeships to kickstart your green career.
By nature, these pathways are designed to give you the industry knowledge, skills and experience desired by employers, making you work and career ready.
What is technical education?
Technical education includes any training, such as qualifications like HNDs (Higher National Diplomas), BTECs, T-Levels, NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications), SVQs (Scottish Vocational Qualifications), and apprenticeships, that focus on progression into skilled employment by providing an understanding of technical knowledge and practical skills valued by industries. Technical education starts at Level 2/SCQF 5, GCSE/National 5, and expands all the way to Level 7/SCQF 11, equivalent to a degree level. Those qualifications at Level 4/SCQF 7 and above are known as ‘Higher technical education’ and are a form of higher education that has classroom-based qualifications and higher apprenticeships. For these, you’ll study with a college, university, or training provider. It differs from A Levels and university and other academic options as it involves understanding from the workplace rather than an academic discipline. They are designed to lead you to high-skilled jobs in an area that interests you.
What are apprenticeships?
Apprenticeships are a paid real job where you are employed by an organisation, while studying towards a qualification. Your employer pays your salary and for your qualification, while training you on the job and providing support to help you complete your studies. Typically, 20% of your time will be training with your college, university, or training provider and the remaining 80% of your training will be on the job as you work. Apprenticeships are open to those 16 and above, and the entry requirements vary. Employers are looking for hardworking, reliable, and committed apprentices in many different fields, including those in green careers. Apprenticeships range from Level 2/SCQF Level 5 to Level 7/SCQF 11. You can take Intermediate, Advanced, Higher, and Degree apprenticeships depending on which level you choose.
Other entry routes exist. Check with your Careers Teacher or Careers Adviser for full details.
You can check the Net Zero and environmental policies of any College, University, employer, or training provider before making an application. Their websites should clearly state their commitment to a sustainable future.
For more information from WorldSkills UK click here: worldskillsuk.org
What Makes a Happy and Successful Life?
Many researchers (including Martin Seligman, Henry Stewart, and Robert Waldinger) have found that the happiest and healthiest people build a life rich in three things:
-Purpose-Meaning
-Connection
Purpose
Purpose results from finding a career in which you can fully develop and apply your skills and personality strengths. Identifying your personality animal with our quick quiz can set you on the path. This is what we do as we work.
Meaning
Meaning is choosing a career that has a positive impact in the world. Increasingly, this means a career which is green. You will see some suggestions after you reveal your personality animal. This is why we work. You can see what the companies sponsoring Green Careers Week are doing to support the planet by clicking on their logos.
Connection
Connection means building relationships with networks of people and groups, in the real, not the virtual, world, to ensure you become a resilient adult with qualities such as kindness, compassion, courage, and curiosity, attracting positive friends and mentors. This is how we live well. Where you live and work is also important for connection. Do you want to live close to your family, in a city or a rural location?
Highest Paid Green Jobs
Top Ten Highest Paid Green Jobs from NESTA Database
| Annual Salary (£) | Job Title |
|---|---|
| £65,000 to £82,000 | Environmental Consultancy Director |
| £45,000 to £55,000 | Energy Manager |
| £38,000 to £48,000 | Hydrographic Surveyor |
| £40,000 to £45,000 | Occupational Health Manager |
| £35,000 to £45,000 | Sustainability Officer, Hydrologist, Water Engineer, Civil Engineer, Solar Panel Installer, Environmental Consultant |
What salary would you like to earn?
Why? Think about the life you’d like to live and what you need to earn to achieve it. Most people don’t do this—they earn the best salary they can and then buy what they can until the money runs out!
Some researchers suggest the happiest people earn around £50,000. Earn more and you’re probably working so hard you won’t have time to fully enjoy your money. Earning less than you need to pay all the bills with a bit left over for fun tends to lead to lower levels of happiness.
Does winning the lottery make you happier?
Researchers find that one year after a large lottery win, people return to the level of happiness they were immediately before their win. So, if you’re miserable before a win, you’ll be miserable a year later. It’s better to plan a good life, and what that would be for you, then you can work out how much money you’ll need.
Teacher Lesson Ideas
Discover Your Personality Activity
The following activity is suitable for all young people. Each student will need access to NCW Green Careers Week online.
Part One (2 to 5 minutes)
Each student is invited to choose three positive words that describe their personality. This gives you an opportunity to read the Lesson Plan. Group feedback and reflection.
Most chosen words are: happy, funny, caring, quiet, and friendly.
Points to make:
- It’s difficult to describe ourselves because we don’t want to appear arrogant, we may not think of ourselves positively, or we may not know our strengths and qualities.
- We will need to develop our self-awareness to make better decisions about our future course and career paths.
- We are also required to talk about ourselves in interview, social, and dating occasions.
Part Two (5 to 15 minutes)
Students are invited to complete the Green Buzz Quiz online (5 mins) and read about their animal personality (5 to 10 minutes).
Is the animal description accurate? Do the three animal strengths words match their three? Do the jobs and tasks appear interesting?
Part Three (5 to 10 minutes)
Students research one or more of the jobs using the NESTA database link.
Further activities: see David Hodgson’s books The Buzz and Personality in the Classroom.