Deadline Date: March 27, 2026
The European Training Foundation has launched the Green Skills Award 2026 to identify and showcase initiatives that are driving meaningful change in the green transition across education, work, communities and digital spaces.
The Green Skills Award recognises initiatives that help people develop green skills, contribute to a fair transition, support sustainability, promote resource efficiency, integrate sustainability into education and training, modernise skills for green jobs, support vulnerable groups, reshape job profiles, and make climate and sustainability knowledge accessible to wider audiences.
The award is organised annually by the European Training Foundation and highlights completed initiatives that have already delivered concrete and verifiable results in the development and application of green skills. It aims to amplify impactful practices whose influence often remains local, by giving them an international platform.
Each year, the award brings forward stories from schools embedding sustainability across curricula, vocational education and training providers translating decarbonisation into practical learning, employers integrating green skills into real work environments, social partners and non-governmental organisations supporting vulnerable workers, employment services opening pathways to fair green jobs, and creators engaging new audiences with sustainability content.
Finalists and winners gain international visibility through European Training Foundation, European Commission and European External Action Service channels. Selected initiatives are professionally documented through storytelling films and promoted during major European Union events such as EU Green Week and the ETF Skills Summit, while also benefiting from networking and partnership opportunities with peers and policymakers.
For the 2026 edition, a special #ForOurPlanet Prize will recognise exceptional initiatives focused on nature restoration and preservation, highlighting their contribution to sustainability and environmental protection.
Applications are open to a wide range of organisations and actors involved in developing or promoting green skills, including employers and SMEs, social partners and NGOs, vocational education and training providers, schools, employment services, and creators or influencers. Each category will have its own winner, and both local projects and national-level initiatives are eligible, provided they are completed and demonstrate measurable impact, originality, innovation, and scalability.
For more information, visit ETF.
