Around the world, the energy sector is assembling the massive workforce it needs to transition to cleaner energy. In 2019, there were 11.5 million jobs in renewable energy. Wind alone is expected to create 3.3 million jobs in the next three years to support new installations.
These projections signal positive things for the future of the clean energy movement. Right now, however, it’s finding it difficult to find people to fill these positions. “There’s always a moment of vacuum whenever a new technology comes in,” says Jordi Lorca, director of engineering research at the University of Barcelona. The industry is already feeling the pressure of the talent vacuum.
Oil and gas is the obvious place to first start looking for talent. Beleaguered by the pandemic and dwindling reserves, the industry is seeing its “fastest rate of layoffs yet”, according to research firm Deloitte.
Bridging the Gap
The natural connection to make is to transition these hundreds of thousands of highly skilled yet unemployed people to green energy. The transition is one of the major talking points surrounding green energy, with the government pledging that UK oil and gas workers will not be left behind.
However, on the ground, efforts have yet to materialise. Many oil and gas workers express dissatisfaction with the level of support they’re getting, and do not yet see a clear way to enter the green economy. Not every oil and gas worker can become a certified wind or solar energy technician immediately.
Those who do attempt to make the change find themselves gated by exorbitant training fees and redundant curriculums. “It’s like people are being forced to buy their jobs. Having a system where you don’t have to duplicate training would make much more sense. The training is basically exactly the same for both industries,” revealed one oil and gas worker reported in a poll commissioned by Friends of the Earth Scotland, Platform and Greenpeace.
And then there are workers whose skill set may not neatly fit into any job description in green energy. “I’m a foreman. My trade is in labor. The money is so much better running a crew. I wouldn’t be anywhere near that doing a wind turbine, which I’ve never done,” says pipeline worker Tyler Noel.
The Way Forward
Retraining professionals from oil and gas will require a coordinated effort by the government and private sector.
Both currently leave much room for improvement. Placed under pressure by the COVID pandemic and the global shift to renewables, a spooked oil and gas sector has been frantically cutting costs, often at the expense of its workers. “I have to pay for my own training and everything else, which used to be covered by my employer,” says one drilling advisor in a survey by Greenpeace.
The offshore sector, particularly offshore wind, is in a unique position to pick up the slack and alleviate the talent shortage by developing programmes that help workers cross over. Some institutions, like non-profit Global Wind Organisation, have already started stepping in with programmes like the GWO Safety Training Access Programme. “This new programme will ensure the skills they already have are fully recognised and that we supplement the training they’ve already undergone with a new level of specialist understanding on how to work safely on offshore and onshore wind farms,” says Melanie Onn, Deputy Chief Executive of RenewablesUK.
Of course, skill matching will need to go beyond safety certifications. The overlapping competencies between the two sectors need to be standardised to allow for clearer passage into the renewables sector. The Energy Skills Alliance (ESA) is a cross-industry partnership created for this exact purpose. Composed of representatives from oil and gas and the UK and Scottish government, the group aims to establish an “all-energy apprenticeship” by 2022.
Employers will also have to step up in terms of providing opportunities for movement. Energy companies have been slow to address the need for upskilling programmes, particularly for new competencies such as digital.
Ørsted’s, currently the world’s largest supplier of wind energy, cites the use of internal talents and competencies as key in its successful transition from hydrocarbons. Major oil and gas employers will need to follow suit to minimise job losses and avoid the bottleneck of the anticipated talent shortage in renewables.
Retraining thousands of oil and gas workers, many of whom have been in hydrocarbons for decades, will be no easy feat. But it will be necessary to support the demands of a greener economy and if the UK is to meet its ambitious carbon targets.
