Visiting Harlow College alongside Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Harlow Chris Vince, Ed Miliband, Shadow Secretary of State of Climate Change and Net Zero, said that Labour’s Green Prosperity Plan will create thousands of skilled jobs in the net zero economy in the South East. The average annual wage for jobs in net zero industries are £8,200 per year higher than the regional average, boosting incomes for working people.

Speaking during the visit, Miliband described how Labour’s Warm Homes Plan will help families who want the chance to upgrade their homes with energy efficiency measures and low carbon heating, and will help to create long-term, skilled, highly paid work for construction workers, electricians and plumbers, as well as reduce household energy bills by hundreds of pounds per year.

The visit included time spent at the college’s Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Centre, designed to give local people the chance to develop green skills qualifications in electric vehicle repair and maintenance, as well as the recently opened Renewable Energy Training Centre, which, in association with Mitsubishi Electric, will enable future generations of heating engineers to train using green technologies as well as helping to reduce carbon emissions.

Speaking about the visit, Miliband said:

“Harlow College is an incredibly inspiring place. Congratulations to both the staff and the students for the brilliant work they are doing in training up young people with the skills of the future in renewable energy. I am so impressed by what you are doing.

“From courses in electric vehicles to installing heat pumps, the teaching being done at Harlow College is an excellent model for what local colleges can do.”

Chris Vince, Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Harlow, said:

“I’m really impressed by the young people we've met today and their passion for what they're doing and their understanding of where the future lies. We've seen them doing a lot of work with electric vehicles and looking at heat pumps. I think they really understand the challenges of the future.”

Harlow College Principal Karen Spencer discussed how Further Education could contribute to changes to Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) to allow local authorities to better plan the skills pipeline needed in their communities, helping the delivery of Labour’s Clean Power Mission, as well as Labour’s plans to create Skills England, designed to streamline the time lag between skills needs being identified and becoming available to learners.

Karen Spencer said:

“It was our great pleasure to welcome Ed Miliband back to Harlow College for the third time today, alongside Chris Vince. Our students and staff were able to share with them how the college is supporting the drive to Net Zero and providing students with green skills. Ed saw everything from our Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Centre, through to our Renewable Energy Training Centre.

“Our students were able to talk passionately about how the new skills they are developing will better equip them for new jobs supporting the UK's drive to renewable technologies.” 

Main photo credit reads:

(L-R) Student Governor Sonny, Deputy Principal Will Allanson, Harlow Labour candidate Chris Vince, Shadow Secretary of State of Climate Change and Net Zero Ed Miliband, Principal Karen Spencer and Student Governor Hannah, in the College's Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Centre