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Green jobs for young people? YES Bristol!
“Being a young person at the moment can be so demoralising,” says Liza Bilal, marketing and communications officer at Bristol’s Youth Environmental Service (YES Bristol).
“People want you to have soft skills, transferable skills. They want you to be basically a jack of all trades. But we’re living in a society that doesn’t make it easy for everybody.”
In a challenging job market where even young graduates are struggling to find meaningful employment, the YES Bristol programme provides a beacon of hope for those passionate about sustainability and environmental work.
YES organises 12-month entry-level, paid placements at environmental organisations that provide young people with the confidence, skills and connections to set them on the path to a green career.
The Youth Environmental Service is tackling the experience gap by enabling young people to spend a year doing paid work at a variety of environmental organisations , in different roles, across the UK. Bristol’s programme has hit the ground running
Nicholas Ferrari, a young person who is working at Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership, describes the programme’s impact: “YES gave me a massive shortcut into the job market straight away. I’ve skipped like ten steps.”
For Evan Fieldhouse, currently working with the Centre for Sustainable Energy, the opportunity arrived at a critical time. “I just left my job and was planning to leave Bristol for an extended period of time and do filmmaking,” he shared.
“Then, just a week before I was about to leave, I got a message about the programme. I took a punt.” What seemed like a chance encounter has transformed into a career pathway.
As Nicholas bluntly puts it: “The job market is awful, it’s so bad.” YES Bristol offers a solution that prioritises experience over traditional credentials. “Experience is valued so much more than any piece of paper,” he stresses.
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The programme is empowering young professionals to tackle environmental challenges head-on, translating theoretical knowledge into practical sustainability initiatives.
At Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership, Nicholas is bridging corporate sustainability with community action.
“We reduce friction between companies and their climate sustainability goals,” he explains. This approach means helping businesses integrate meaningful environmental strategies, moving beyond greenwashing to create tangible change.
Evan expands on his work: “I taught key stage two students about sustainability,” highlighting the project’s commitment to climate literacy.
Beyond employment challenges, YES reveals the critical, often heart-wrenching realities of environmental work.
Evan shared: “Last week, I went to home visits where people were desperate for energy advice to reduce their bills. They couldn’t afford to heat their homes at one point.”
He describes working in the Easton and Redcliffe area with local Somali communities, creating “sustainability champions” through translation and engaging with community needs.
The UK’s environment sector is typically made up of middle class white people but with the help of programmes like YES the landscape is changing
Both participants underscore the programme’s networking potential. “A lot of the time with jobs, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” Nicholas explains.
For Evan, the connections are already proving valuable: “I’ve had conversations with people whom I would have never known, from local contacts to individuals who regularly meet with politicians about climate policies. I’ve had a colleague sit next to me on a video call with Ed Miliband.”
The programme isn’t just about finding a job – it’s about creating meaningful career pathways. Evan reflects: “It’s about making the most of this chance. Even if it’s just a glimpse of what’s going on, it’s been massively beneficial”.
Asked about their favourite green spaces in Bristol, Liza shared that hers is Nightingale Valley in St. Anne’s. Evan, having grown up in Fishponds, enjoys Vassall’s Park and follows its trail into Snuff Mills and Eastville Park, while Nicholas’ favourite is Brandon Hill
Bristol’s vibrant environmental scene is elevated by the programme’s approach to inclusion and opportunity in the green sector, where race and socio-economic backgrounds have long been barriers.
“We’re trying to create a network and an ecosystem of environmental and youth-facing organisations,” explains Liza.
“YES’ strength lies in the fact that it is not trying to be different. Our goal is to fix that broken pipeline between employers and young people.”
The barriers are systemic and multifaceted. “A lot of these organisations are dying for people. They want young people to come in,” explains Liza. “But the way our society has long been structured, with austerity and government policy, means that the talent pipeline is broken.”
Challenging the sector’s historical homogeneity, revealing a landscape overtly dominated by middle-aged white professionals, Nicholas reflects: “Every meeting I’ve gone to has been all white women over 30. And it’s always a bold white guy speaking, and all the women just listen.”
These sobering observations reveal a critical challenge: the sector has historically been dominated by a narrow demographic, effectively excluding talented young people from diverse backgrounds.
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Central to this breakdown is the economic exclusivity of environmental work. “A lot of the people you’ll meet will be middle-aged white people that are middle class themselves,” Nicholas adds.
“They could afford to do free placements and volunteering because they have a comfortable net to fall back on.”
The barriers are multifaceted – from unpaid internships that favour those with financial privilege to job requirements that demand years of experience for ‘entry-level’ positions.
Liza adds: “When you look at the connection between people from underrepresented backgrounds, offering only free roles is never going to diversify your organisation or sector. You’re essentially limiting the talent pool.”
“If your talent pool is way more diverse,” Evan argues, “then you’re bound to tackle modern issues more easily because you’ve got a different way of looking at things.”
As a Bristol native, Evan reflects: “The city can often appear to be very trendy, but there are massive parts of Bristol that experience a lot of poverty.”
For its attempts to create change he applauds the scheme: “There’s a real push within YES to work with a full range of people and experiences.”
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Central to the YES programme’s approach is the provision of a Real Living Wage. “One of our main goals is to diversify the environmental sector,” says Liza. “It’s about empowering young people and recognising that the current system excludes talented individuals.”
The emotional labour of environmental work amid the cost-of-living crisis and a dwindling job market adds an extra layer of complexity.
Young people currently facing the wrath of the job market and carrying an immense mental burden about their careers and futures deserve recognition and compensation.
Nicholas, a young person of Brazilian heritage, sympathises: “It’s so heartbreaking sitting on a computer, applying to 20-30 jobs and waking up the next day to 20 different rejection emails. Don’t give up.”
With the help of YES, Bristol’s environment sector is becoming more representative and young people are finding meaningful work they care about
As climate change becomes increasingly urgent, programmes like YES demonstrate the power localised initiatives have to challenge traditions.
YES represents more than just a job placement: by creating paid opportunities, mentorships and challenging the recruitment process, these young professionals are reimagining the entire landscape.
The young professionals are challenging not just employment barriers, but also connecting environmental work with community resilience.
Bristol’s future in climate action is human, complex and driven by young people determined to create meaningful change.
As one of Bristol24/7’s Youth Climate Reporters, Medha Ghosh is part of our scheme to amplify underrepresented voices and broaden the range of perspectives and stories we tell on environment issues. The scheme is funded by Bristol City Council and our public and Better Business members.
All images: YES Bristol
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