Key Details
The UNDP report, Powering the Future: Sparking the Next Generation of Energy Talent, focuses on the gap between young people’s interest in clean energy and their ability to participate in the sector.
UNDP worked with the youth platform Goodwall to gather views through an online learning and engagement programme. 55,314 participants completed its learning journey.
Participants sought career guidance, technical training, apprenticeships, mentors and access to finance, as well as a voice in energy decisions.
A separate Capgemini–UNICEF survey cited in the report found that 58% of Indian respondents aged 16–24 believed green skills could open new career opportunities.
UNDP and Goodwall are developing further work on youth entrepreneurship, practical experience, national energy dialogues and continued learning.
Interest in Clean Energy Is Wider Than Engineering
Participants associated sustainable energy with paid work, useful skills and solving problems in their communities. They described potential roles not only in engineering, but also in installation and maintenance, business development, agriculture and public policy.
Yet interest does not provide a route into a job. Young people asked where relevant training is available, what different roles require and how to gain their first experience. The report’s central finding is a pathway problem: learning, workplace exposure, professional connections and employment opportunities need to join up.
Reliable Power Also Shapes Young People’s Livelihoods
Young participants described electricity in practical terms: it lets them study, charge devices, attend online interviews, run equipment and keep small businesses operating. Reliability and affordability mattered alongside access. The report therefore treats sustainable energy both as a source of jobs and as infrastructure that enables work in other sectors.
For India, the 58% green-skills figure offers a useful indication of perceived opportunity, but it comes from the separate Capgemini–UNICEF survey. UNDP’s Goodwall engagement is not a representative survey of Indian youthor an assessment of Indian clean-energy employment.
The Proposed Response Connects Learning with Participation
UNDP and Goodwall say they are developing an energy-innovation incubator, links between online learning and offline experience, a toolkit for national energy dialogues with young people, and additional learning materials. These are planned initiatives, not reported programme outcomes.
The report also recommends work-based learning, support for youth-led enterprises, better career information and recurring ways for young people to contribute to energy planning. Its emphasis is on giving young people practical routes to work and decision-making, rather than treating awareness-raising as the endpoint.
Policy Relevance
India’s renewable-energy expansion creates a workforce question for energy agencies, training institutions and employers: which roles are growing locally, and can a young person see a credible route from training to paid work? Course enrolment alone would not answer it. Apprenticeship access, placement, retention and earnings would provide stronger tests of whether skills programmes are working.
The report also makes a case for involving young people where energy projects affect local livelihoods. Their participation would be most useful when it informs training choices, project design or delivery, with a clear response from the institutions making those decisions.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: Where are the gaps between India’s clean-energy training programmes and actual entry-level jobs, and which institutions can close them?
Follow the Full Report Here: UNDP, Powering the Future: Sparking the Next Generation of Energy Talent