The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Industry’ s image problem is putting off young workers
Transforming the UK economy from one powered largely by fossil fuels to renewables is one of the biggest engineering projects we’ve ever faced.
Just as engineers like James Watt, Robert Stevenson and John Scott Russell drove and defined the achievements of the Industrial Revolution, the clean energy revolution will be built by a skilled offshore energy workforce.
However, creating this skilled workforce is one of the major challenges facing the UK.
Research from Robert Gordon University found that the UK offshore energy industry will need 200,000 skilled people by 2030 to deliver the energy transition. The UK Government’s current energy strategy, if successful, could add 75,000 people to the workforce by then, bringing it up to 225,000.
However, without proper investment and support, Offshore Energy UK warned that instead of growing by 75,000, the workforce could shrink by 20,000. The lack of qualified professionals will in turn hold back the energy transition and leave the UK without an entire sector’s worth of high-paying jobs.
But the window to grow the workforce is small and imminent.
The workers employed in offshore oil and gas will form the heart of its offshore renewable energy workforce.
An estimated 90% of the current workforce have skills that can be readily deployed in the offshore renewables sector.
National energy skills accelerator project manager at Energy Transition Zone, Lauren Braidwood, said: “The definition of a green skill gives the impression that green skills are new skills.
“There are some gaps in very specific technical abilities, as you’d expect from new technology, but a lot of the skills that are needed already exist in oil and gas.”
However, part of the challenge is maintaining the workforce during the transition period.
As oil and gas declines and renewables rises, jobs from one will disappear and clean energy roles will become more abundant. In theory. The challenge is managing this. If oil and gas jobs disappear faster than renewables roles are introduced, there is a risk that workers will leave the industry faster than they can be replaced.
Director of Robert Gordon University’s Energy Transition Institute, Paul de Leeuw, said: “Oil and gas is going to be part of the equation for a long time.
“The question is, is the renewables industry big enough to take everyone in?”
That requires a delicate balancing act.
On the one hand, oil and gas needs to be supported to maintain the jobs needed to sustain the workforce. On the other, the renewables sector needs support too, to ensure there are jobs for new and existing workers to move into.
“Before we go to skills, you have to go to jobs,” de Leeuw said.
“At the moment, we see oil and gas declining and renewables growing, and there is what we call the Goldilocks zone. You need to manage it in such a way that, as there’s decline in one industry, you can take your skills and capacity into other sectors.”
However, the push to clean energy and low carbon has been wavering across the political spectrum.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rolled back plans to phase out selling petrol and diesel cars, along with gas boilers. Meanwhile, Labour cut a planned spending target of £28 billion on green energy projects per year to £23.7bn. Most recently, the Scottish Government abandoned its climate target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030, a decision that led to First Minister Humza Yousaf resigning.
“We have to accelerate renewables activity,” de Leeuw said. “We need to balance it in such a way that we maintain the supply chain and skills to ensure we have the capacity and capability to ramp up the renewable business when we need it.
“If you haven’t got the jobs, skills aren’t an issue.”
If jobs are one half of the offshore energy workforce challenge, bringing in and retaining skilled people is the other.
With the average offshore worker roughly 44 years old, they will form the core of the workforce helping the UK hit its 2030 targets. However, the UK is aiming to reach net zero by 2050, by when many current workers will be looking to retire.
The energy industry needs to attract new talent to ensure a smooth energy transition. However, the sector suffers from an image problem, discouraging young people from entering it.
One survey warned half the general population would not consider a career in oil and gas.
Lauren Braidwood noted: “We are struggling to attract people to energy in general, whether that’s oil and gas or clean energy. Some of that is around public perception.
“We did a workshop with a Youth Forum and we asked a group of S4-6s what they thought of the energy industry, in one word. The most popular word was boring.
“We sat down and asked why is it boring? A lot said they don’t want to work behind a desk for the rest of their lives.
“To solve that, we would need a massive rebrand of the energy industry, and that’s not going to be down to anyone organisation or individual – that is an industry-wide initiative.”
A top priority to tackle these workforce challenges and bring more young people into the energy sector is engaging with universities and university students.
De Leeuw warned: “We see quite a decline in courses from people coming from the northwest, but there’s still quite a high demand from other parts of the world.”
However, Aberdeen University head of School of Geosciences, David Muirhead, noted: “We’re not seeing a massive shift in terms of students coming into the university.
“Integrated petroleum geoscience has been running for over 50 years now and it’s still bringing on students.
“We’re not seeing a matching decline in programmes named or badged with petroleum or oil and gas. Those are still there and still recruiting and still seeing good application numbers.”
Whether in fossil fuels or renewables, the UK needs skilled workers to help meet the challenges of the energy transition.
“The reality is, we need geoscientists and engineers as we go through the transition,” Muirhead said. “We need the technical skills to identify key areas for carbon storage, hydrogen, how we utilise critical metals and minerals.
“We need scientists and engineers across all spheres, and that includes oil and gas, carbon capture storage, hydrogen, critical minerals and renewables.”