Launched last week at the Energy & Utility Skills Conference and Awards, the Workforce Demand Reports from Energy & Utility Skills highlight the significant skills and workforce challenges facing industries in the sector over the next six years.
The reports outline what will be needed to enable the UK to achieve the Government’s ambition of becoming a clean energy superpower and delivering improvements to our environment.
Phil Beach, CEO of Energy & Utility Skills, opened the conference with a welcoming address, setting the scene for the sessions to follow. Mark Wild, OBE, CEO of SGN and Chair of the Energy & Utility Skills Partnership CEO Council, then delivered a keynote speech ‘Taking on the Skills Gap,’ offering valuable insights into workforce development, talent attraction, and the scale of the skills challenge.
Phil Beach returned to the stage to lead the session ‘The Skills Opportunities of Net Zero and Environmental Goals,’ focusing on the sector’s key challenges and opportunities and the potential for Government, employers and unions to work in partnership to deliver change.
Panels of experts, industry leaders, and regulators then explored the data in the reports. The demand for both current and planned skilled roles is exceptionally high and is exacerbated by challenges in filling these positions. The volume of people needed to be working in the sector is growing, and excluding staff turnover, over 205,000 new jobs are expected.
Labour market forecasts further complicate the situation, predicting that over 105,000 workers (1/6 of the current workforce) will retire by 2030. This raises the total number of new workers needed to over 312,000. Notably, more than half of these roles (52%) will require low to mid-level skills, highlighting the need for better alignment between national skills policies and industry demands.
With the sector operating in a highly competitive environment for scarce skilled resources, the focus on recruitment, development, progression, and retention is more critical than ever. Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity (EDI) are vital components of this strategy, helping to broaden the talent pool and ensure the sector remains resilient amidst rapid growth and evolving demands.
A successful social impact commitment and coordination of EDI initiatives will reduce barriers to opportunity and expand access to high-quality jobs within the sector to meet the requirements for net zero.
Phil Beach, closed the conference by thanking participants and highlighting the skills opportunities arising from net zero environmental goals, commenting:
“We need an additional 200,000 people in the energy and utilities sector by 2030 to deliver the Government’s missions. This requires a more demand-led skills system that delivers competent people. Government, industry, and unions need to work together to identify these competencies and ensure the skills system is sufficiently agile and responsive to deliver them. The introduction of Skills England is a huge opportunity and will hopefully herald increased flexibility in apprenticeship funding and delivery whilst preserving them as a critically important feature of the skills landscape.”
For more detailed insights and to explore the strategies essential to addressing these pressing workforce issues, please refer to the Workforce Demand Estimates 2024 to 2030.
