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Green Skills Employability Summit – A Win for Students!

On 6 November 2025, Mayor’s Green Skills Academy Programme for Local London threw an engaging, successful employability summit for students, partners, and employers. The event was organised in conjunction with London South East Colleges and Constructive Futures, and was hosted at University of East London in the Royal Docks Centre for Sustainability.

The objective of the day was simple: bring together learners and equip them with information to confidently choose their green skills-related career paths—and provide work experience opportunities to make it real.  

Audience

In total, over 80 students from 7 educational institutions attended. The student cohorts consisted of those interested in climate action, construction, design, skilled trades, and sustainability, and who were attending one of Mayor’s Academy’s partner colleges: 

In addition, 29 guest speakers, role models, tutors, and employers arrived to engage with students, share their insights, and help shape learners’ educational and career paths.  

Agenda

The morning opened with a talk from Emeka Efe Osaji (Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers) who spoke about climate change with an emphasis on the construction industry’s contributions to sustainability. Then, a panel of five role models from various sectors spoke to students about their career journeys and took questions from the audience. These panellists were Morris Williams (L&Q Housing Trust), Katreena Supsup (TTSP), Tomi Ayede (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), Isobel Powers (WSP), and Leah Cimmunis (Allsop). 

Following these talks, students broke out into one of four smaller, interactive workshops based on their interests: The Future of Plumbing and Electronics with AI, Green Skills in the Natural Environment, Net Zero Case Studies, and Design and Engineering for Climate Resilience. Having these smaller break-out sessions allowed students to get more interactive time with employers on more specialised topics. 

After lunch, the remainder of the day held talks on a variety of relevant topics: the demand of green jobs; carbon literacy, net zero, and biodiversity net gain; the pathway from further education to higher education; and the value of entrepreneurship in the skills world.  Closing remarks were made by the hosting partners: Sonya Mallin from Mayor’s Academy, and Jennifer Kitchen and Natalie Sarabia-Johnston from Constructive Futures.  

Speakers for the afternoon sessions and the interactive workshops included Lauren Keeble and Carl Thomas (UEL); Slaheoldine Thomas (DDG Network Group); Michal Zarzecki (LArch Landscape Consultancy and Design); Audley English (Buildeco); Vince Fenson (MEP4Offsite); Gary Clarkson and  Diana Puiu (Georg Fischer Building Flow Solutions); Georgia Alfreds (Greengage); and Helen James, Karol Quinn, and Natalie Dutton (David Morley Architects).  

Impact

The impact of this event was evident. Aside from the large student and employer turnout, engaging questions from learners, and variety of topics covered, sentiment data also reflected positive outcomes. 

• Participants reflected higher understanding of “career opportunities in green skills” after the event compared to prior (increased from 5.53/10 to 8.10/10). 
• Participants reflected higher confidence in networking after the event compared to prior (increased from 5.17/10 to 7.70/10). 
• Participants reflected higher understanding of how to obtain work experience after the event compared to prior (increased from 6.43/10 to 8.00/10). 

In terms of career opportunity, employers had 7 exclusive work experience placements available for the learners. At the event, interested students exchanged information with employers and are now in the process of interviewing and obtaining offers with these firms as a direct result of the employability summit.  

At the close of the event, we asked students to share which session was their favourite and why. One learner shared the following:

“[The role models panel was my favourite]…because it allowed the students to hear first-hand from those near their age or who have been to uni on how to get your foot in the door and the steps taken to get there; it’s not easy but it was key…to hear it doesn’t just happen, you work hard and you make things happen.” 

Author: Claire LoRusso (Green Skills Project Coordinator)

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