Bridging the skills gap: there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution

It is an exciting time to be working in the transmission and distribution markets.

The country is gearing up to deliver the clean energy revolution required to establish a net zero electricity grid by 2030, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates that investment in the UK energy transition jumped by 84% in 2023 from the previous year.

The engineering and construction industry is central to this, serving as the minds behind the infrastructure and the boots on the ground to build it.

While investment and ambition around the transition are growing, the talent pipeline is struggling to keep pace.

Results released in 2023 by the International Renewable Energy Agency suggest that the number of jobs required globally in renewable energy has almost doubled since 2012.

National Grid estimates up to 60,000 jobs will be created in the UK offshore wind sector alone in this decade.

Meanwhile, the grid is still inundated with connection requests to bring this renewably generated energy onshore. The feasibility of the transition depends on getting the right people into the right jobs as quickly as possible.

For well over a decade, policymakers have known of the need to revolutionise the skills pipeline for engineering and construction.

In 2013, the Perkins review assessed the state of engineering training and skills across the UK. The report revealed that the UK was facing a significant shortage of skilled engineers, particularly across more niche markets such as transmission and distribution.

The more recent Future Energy Skills Summit paper from SSE, Scottish Power, NESO and the University of Strathclyde (2024) strongly recommended that organisations across the sector must work together to create a better understanding of emerging capability demands and to see that people, skills and job planning are all embedded in strategic plans.

By talking to each other, rather than taking siloed approaches, we can future-proof our plans as an industry.

Since previous reviews, educational pathways have evolved significantly. The Future Energy Skills Summit paper found the next step must be advocating and communicating these opportunities across schools, colleges, universities and the wider society.

Colleges, in particular, will play a pivotal role in addressing the skills gap.

There is no doubt that transmission and distribution is an exciting and important sector to work in, but the industry needs to create better awareness amongst the early talent pipeline across the energy landscape.

One of the best ways to grow the skills pipeline into the future will be through sectoral collaboration.

The transmission market is not sufficiently visible, especially given the significance it will have for transforming the UK electricity system.

We also need to develop new approaches to recruiting into the sector, succession planning and talent retention.

An industry-wide recruitment campaign through collaborative initiatives, which has been successful in the nuclear sector, should be adopted across the transmission market to attract young talent. 

The new government has promised to overhaul skills policies and apprenticeships to support the engineering industry.

Skills England, launched in summer 2024, could provide a mechanism to help organisations across the industry come together to communicate about skills gaps they’re experiencing and collaborate to avoid future capacity shortfalls.

The government’s planned changes to the apprenticeship levy are also working to include employers in shaping the future skills pipeline.

The changes will let employers spend half their levy on short, modular courses to fill the skills gaps they can identify. This is an encouraging step, allowing industry to shape the workforce more reactively.

The upcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill would streamline the planning process for major infrastructure.

This could play an important role in addressing the skills gap by giving the supply chain more confidence to invest in its workforce, with the knowledge that this expanded workforce could be deployed on projects that are certain to go ahead.

Through these policies, the government has shown its ambition for addressing obstacles across the UK energy landscape. This ambition is most clearly articulated though Great British Energy (GBE).

GBE is the new publicly owned clean power company earmarked for an £8.3 billion investment over the next Parliament. It has a mission to invest in future industries and create 650,000 jobs by 2030.

This is an exciting prospect, but it needs to correspond with an equal investment in attracting and training young people, so there will be sufficient talent to fill these positions.

From an industry perspective, many of our skills policies at Burns & McDonnell have evolved responsively to prepare for the future.

We support young people pursuing STEM careers by working with schools, universities and colleges, and by providing early career-starters with mentoring and development support.

Many of our transmission clients have been prominent voices in encouraging the sector to collaborate on a national, collaborative drive for recruitment and training that would emulate the successful Destination Nuclear campaign. This showcases the transmission market as one of the most exciting and disruptive areas to be working in across the energy landscape.

We have attended the Glasgow Caledonian University Careers Fair, meeting with future members of the engineering industry and making them aware of how aspirational and rewarding careers across transmission and distribution can be.

We also support and encourage female engineers through our Network of Women initiatives.

It’s an important time for the transmission and distribution markets, and the new government’s renewed focus on skills has provided industry and investors with more confident signals.

We now hope to see these ambitions enabled by prioritising reform to the skills pipeline. Unless we can bridge the skills gap, we risk the achievability of a net zero grid by 2030. 

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the skills gap, but it’s clear that we need a renewed and re-energised approach, particularly for the transmission and distribution sector.

There is no shortage of excitement or opportunity across the sector, but this must be linked to recruitment, retention and succession planning as we look to meet the challenges posed by 2030 and beyond.

Zoe Dempsey is business development director at Burns & McDonnell UK.