The winds of change
Around 90 per cent of fossil fuel workers have skills that are relevant to the clean energy transition.
The winds of change are indeed blowing across the UK, as it embarks on an energy transition that is both good for the economy and essential to curbing climate change.
Homegrown wind and solar are taking over from fossil fuels, but it's important that workers aren’t left behind.
Job losses are occurring in the oil and gas industry at an astonishing rate, with some reports indicating potentially significant reductions in the workforce. A report by Robert Gordon University suggests that the UK could lose up to 400 jobs every two weeks for the next five years. This is only partly due to a decline in oil production and a shift towards renewable energy sources.
To help with the transition, the government has launched a ‘skills passport’ to help oil and gas workers transfer into clean energy jobs. (The skills passport has been three years in the making and was originally meant to launch in 2023.)
The Labour government has also announced regional skills investments worth almost £4 million that will enable people make the move into a green energy career.
Green skills in the spotlight
The green skills gap has become an increasing concern in the energy industry, and one which the government is anxious to address.
In September 2024, prime minister Keir Starmer announced plans to overhaul the English apprenticeship system to recruit young people into the green industry and other key sectors.
This announcement came on the same day that Skills England released its first report on the nation’s working skills in a variety of sectors. The report noted that a fifth of workers will play a core role in delivering net zero, with a further 21% helping to enable the transition in other ways.
How the new ‘skills passport’ works
Oil and gas workers will be able to access the skills passport online and thus identify routes into offshore wind careers. Construction, maintenance and operation are amongst the initial roles available.
The passport will show where existing qualifications are recognised. Research from Offshore Energies UK estimates that 90 per cent of oil and gas workers have skills that are relevant to the clean energy transition, so there should be plenty of opportunities.
Supported by £3.7 million of Scottish Government’s ‘Just Transition’ funding, the energy skills passport is set to be expanded later this year and point to other pathways into renewables.
UK industrial heartlands get green jobs funding, too
As part of its plan to make Britain a ‘clean energy superpower’ - generating at least 95 per cent of its power from low carbon sources by 2030 - the government is also rolling out regional skills investments.
Aberdeen, Cheshire, Lincolnshire and Pembrokeshire will each receive around £1m in funding for relevant projects from the Office for Clean Energy Jobs, which sits within the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
They have all been identified as key growth regions for clean energy, with flourishing offshore wind, solar and nuclear industries.
Funding could go towards new training centres, courses or career advisers - supporting local people to get jobs in welding, electrical engineering, and construction, for example.
Cheshire West and Chester, North and North East Lincolnshire and Pembrokeshire will benefit first; and significant work to identify skills has already been done for Aberdeen. In Cheshire, funding is likely to train more people for the area’s nuclear fuel cluster.
Is the upskilling plan far-reaching enough…?
Well, this plan would, nonetheless, result in the Government failing to deliver against a vision – set under Boris Johnson – for the nation to host two million green jobs by 2030. (272,400 people worked in low-carbon and renewable energy economy roles in 2022 according to the ONS.)
However, Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, National Officer at the general trade union (GMB), described the new initiatives as a “welcome first step”.
The net-zero transition could, if managed well, result in up to 725,000 new net jobs in low-carbon sectors by 2030 compared to 2019, according to independent government advisor, the Climate Change Committee. Many of these roles will be in energy efficiency and low-carbon heating installation/maintenance, rather than in energy generation.
There are many more jobs to be filled outside of energy generation, such as retrofitting buildings, low-carbon heating installation and the manufacture of electric vehicles (EVs).
Carl Dodd, Property Revolutions Ltd.
