Green skills for tomorrow’s supply chains: an industry–education partnership framework for sustainable transformation

Overview

This conceptual paper addresses the gap between green skills development and sustainable supply chain management practice through an industry-education partnership framework. The research identifies significant misalignments between traditional educational curricula and competency requirements emerging in green supply chains. The proposed Green Skills-SSCM Integration Framework integrates five interconnected dimensions: Green Technical Competencies, Digital Sustainability Literacy, Circular Economy Thinking, Collaborative Stakeholder Engagement, and Adaptive Innovation Capabilities. The framework is grounded in capability theory, social capital theory, and stakeholder theory, providing both theoretical rigor and practical implementation pathways for SSCM contexts.

Methods and approach

A systematic literature review was conducted across Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar for peer-reviewed articles published between 2020 and 2025. Keywords included green skills, sustainable supply chain management, and industry-education partnerships. An initial 87 articles were identified, with 68 sources directly addressing research objectives selected for analysis. The Green Skills-SSCM Integration Framework was developed through iterative conceptual refinement, synthesizing insights from capability theory, social capital theory, and stakeholder theory to establish explicit partnership mechanisms and implementation pathways specific to SSCM contexts.

Key Findings

Analysis revealed substantial disconnects between conventional educational curricula and competency requirements for emerging green supply chain roles. The GSSIF provides a distinctive integrated approach encompassing five interconnected dimensions designed for partnership-based implementation. Unlike fragmented existing approaches, the framework specifies explicit partnership mechanisms and sector-specific implementation pathways. The framework represents a comprehensive theoretical and practical foundation for aligning education with SSCM practice requirements.

Implications

The framework addresses the growing demand for sustainability professionals by establishing structured mechanisms for industry-education collaboration in green skills development. GSSIF provides actionable guidelines for educational institutions and industry practitioners to systematically develop competencies aligned with sustainable supply chain transformation. The integration of five core capability dimensions within a partnership context facilitates more coherent and responsive skills development across the supply chain sector. This approach has potential applications for policy development in vocational education, corporate training programs, and supply chain transformation initiatives. The framework advances understanding of how educational institutions and industry stakeholders can collaboratively address sustainability professional development at scale.