From standard jobs to ‘green jobs’: a strategy for developing markets

Abstract

Like many developing countries, Thailand is currently coping with a host of environmental challenges and a need to reduce carbon emissions. To tackle this challenge, Thailand has produced policies designed to enhance environmental conservation. However, without the development of its labour force with suitable and up to date job skills this challenge becomes difficult to achieve. This paper presents a rationale for the emergence of green occupations as a means of transitioning Thailand’s tourism sector into a low carbon economy. A mechanism for achieving this goal is by training and retraining the workforce with a set of well-defined green knowledge and skill sets. These can be developed through the development and implementation of ‘green competencies’. This paper presents a methodology of how to transition a standard job into a green job in the tourism sector by developing green sustainable competencies