The UK government believes that both skills building and sustainable development are crucial to ensure business is fibrant and sustainable. It just needs some joining up..

In order to develop the right skills, and associated learning, the government considers that the "demand side" (business) should be spelling out its needs more clearly. The "supply side" - Colleges and Awarding Bodies should respond accordingly.

Sector
The strategy for developing sustaianble development skills will be to co-ordinate the development of National Occupational Standards (NOS) by Sector Skills Couincils (SSCs) through the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA). Sustainability skills may be particular to some sectors, but there will also be generic skills.

Awards
Once those NOSs are in place, Awarding Bodies can create the Learning Outcomes for nationally recognise awards. They present these to the QCA/SCA to become qualifications and thus accessing guaranteed funding.

To see how the vocational awards fit with other qualifications, see Framework

If you want to see how this all fits together, go to Sustainable Skills Matrix