However, turning this vision into action depends on one crucial factor: people. The ASEAN State of Climate Change Report (ASCCR) 2021 highlights the vital role of skills development across various sectors, including energy, transport, and urban planning. As cities go green and industries shift toward sustainable practices, the demand for a skilled, adaptable workforce is growing fast.

With strong support from the ASEAN-German development project “Regional Cooperation on Labour Market and TVET for a Twin Transition in ASEAN” (RECOTwin), I have been helping drive a critical conversation across the region: How can ASEAN develop the right skills for a greener, more inclusive future?

International agencies (e.g. UNESCO) have introduced the concept of “Green Human Capital,” holding significant opportunities for the region. This concept advocates for national governments to take the lead in identifying and developing green skills, connecting jobs and occupations, skills, and training to shaping the framework of the green transition.

Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) plays a major role in this scenario. The ASEAN TVET Council (ATC) provides a platform for coordination, research and development of innovations, and monitors regional programmes that support the advancement of TVET. The ATC’s Work Plan (2021-2030) clearly highlights TVET’s key role in achieving ASEAN’s high aspirations of inclusive growth as well as responding to emerging trends, such as the green transition.

Therefore, greening TVET in all its facets, from green institutions to learning new skills, to trend scouting and driving innovation, is a vital cornerstone to the realisation of this plan. Curricula need to be adapted to reflect sustainability aspects throughout, by also incorporating skills such as “learning to learn” and transversal or generic green skills, which align closely with 21st-century skills. They are essential now and will equip young learners to become a future-ready workforce.

Moreover, the ATC Work Plan emphasises enhancing the capacity of TVET personnel through training programmes for trainers, educators, and leaders to stay ahead of new trends and innovations in teaching and learning. Finally, the rise of green industries such as renewable energy and electric vehicles is to be reflected in labour market information strategies.

Capacity building and innovation for greening TVET in ASEAN

In 2024/2025, the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation’s Regional Centre for Vocational and Technical Education and Training (SEAMEO VOCTECH), in collaboration with the Education University of Hong Kong, conducted four training workshops on “Greening TVET” with more than 100 TVET practitioners across Brunei, Timor-Leste, and Indonesia. Participants were tasked to create individual action plans aimed at greening their TVET institutions.

Some ideas included a campus-wide energy efficiency and renewable energy plan to reduce the carbon footprint and promote sustainability at their institute. Other approaches focused on awareness raising among staff and students and included activities like creating compost, planting trees and flowers. There are also suggestions to integrate waste management and efficient use of water as cross-cutting topics in the curriculum. Again, another group developed a detailed curriculum with a 50-hour green module structured around key sustainability and green concepts, and it includes international and local case studies to illustrate how the challenges of the green transition can be resolved.

These efforts are part of broader regional strategies to embed sustainability within TVET in ASEAN. TVET institutions can help leverage ASEAN Quality Assurance Frameworks, such as the ASEAN TVET Network Quality Assurance (ATN-QA), share best practices, offer upskilling initiatives, conduct policy dialogues and advocacy campaigns, and generally help prepare the ASEAN workforce for the green transition.

Building knowledge and evidence

Another important aspect of the ATC Work Plan further emphasises generating evidence, conducting research, and developing knowledge as critical actions. My recent study analysed the landscape of green vocational education research within ASEAN, focusing on literature connecting environmental sustainability with vocational/technical education in the ASEAN region. The study distilled 283 papers into a final dataset, revealing significant interest from researchers and governments in the topic.

The meta-study identified several key themes across the region. The cornerstone of green TVET research in ASEAN lies in policy papers and strategic roadmaps. These official reports build the foundation and guidance for implementing green TVET initiatives. But researchers in ASEAN are not only focused on policy frameworks. They are also delving into practical aspects of curriculum design and human capital development. They explore how to create effective green architecture classes, green agriculture modules, and sustainable technical labs, and how these curricula can lead to measurable improvements in students’ green competencies. Additionally, the research acknowledges ASEAN-specific realities, such as the role of temporary foreign workers, highlighting cross-border employment scenarios.

Recommendations for advancing the green transition in TVET

The importance of Green Human Capital in supporting the green transition in ASEAN is evident from the research. ASEAN and national governments must implement mechanisms that summarise and apply these findings. Different research methods and perspectives on greening TVET can help identify specific approaches. Sharing good examples of capacity building and curriculum development across the region can inform ASEAN-level policy formulation and recommendations. The findings suggest that a taxonomy of green skills for the region would be an important mechanism for collecting labour market information related to greening, ensuring that green skills are mutually addressed, and monitoring curricula and implementation are comparable across the member states. Incorporation of greening aspects into Quality Assurance Frameworks for TVET, with a focus on standards, assessment guidelines, and quality accreditation, will help move towards greening human capital in the region.

The ASEAN-German cooperation project, “Regional Cooperation on Labour Market Policy and TVET for a Twin Transition in ASEAN” (RECOTwin), facilitates peer exchanges among ASEAN member states represented in the ASEAN TVET Council (ATC), the Senior Labour Officials Meeting (SLOM), and the Senior Officials Meeting on Education (SOM-ED). The project aims to enhance knowledge exchange and share best practices among policymakers and practitioners to empower the ASEAN labour force with the skills and choices needed to shape a sustainable and inclusive future. Besides peer exchange, GIZ’s RECOTwin project supports evidence-based policymaking, offering capacity development measures and developing regional standards to align TVET and labour market policies across the region with the green and digital transition, thereby contributing to achieving the set goals of the SLOM, SOM-ED, and ATC Work Plans.

The views and opinions in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the policy or official position of ASEAN.