From solar panels and wind farms to electric vehicles and sustainable farming, industries everywhere are shifting gears to hit the UK government’s ambitious Clean Power 2030 goals. The problem is, across all sectors, the nation doesn’t have enough people with the right skills to keep up, and this growing green skills gap is becoming a major roadblock in our fight for a sustainable future.
In order to hit our net zero targets, we need a workforce that knows how to make that happen, but there’s a big question mark over whether we are ready. We dive into the size of the green skills gap, the threat it poses, what is causing it and what is being done to fix it.
How bad is it really?
It is easy to think of the green skills gap as a minor issue, or something that will naturally resolve itself as the energy industry continues its transition to renewable energy, but this could not be further from the truth.
Sources vary on the number of jobs in the green sector that will need to be filled, but all agree that hundreds of thousands of new positions will be created by the net zero transition. National Grid estimates that by 2050, 400,000 roles will need to be filled to meet increased demand for renewable energy production, with 260,000 of these being entirely new jobs. The same report noted that demand for additional jobs in offshore wind will increase by as much as 41,000 by 2026.
In the more immediate term, demand for green skills is growing faster than the supply of qualified candidates, a problem that is only expected to get worse in the coming years. A report from the social media site and careers board LinkedIn revealed that in 2023, the global demand for green talent grew around twice as quickly as the number of qualified candidates, with demand rising by 11.6% and supply only growing 5.6%. The UK, in particular, is facing a major shortage – UK-specific demand for green talent grew by 46% between 2023 and 2024, but supply only grew by 5.3% over that time. Meanwhile, over half of UK professionals believe that businesses are unprepared for the net zero transition, with the most common reason for this cited as being a lack of knowledge in the industry.
Green skills are valuable, so why the gap?
The lack of available talent is not reflective of a lack of desire to gain green skills. Utility OVO Energy recently published a report which revealed that only 7% of people receive green skills training at work, despite as many as 21% asking their employer for such training. It is understandable that a significant number of people want to boost their green credentials to give their career a shot in the arm – LinkedIn’s 2024 Climate Talent Stock Take showed that candidates with green skills are significantly more likely to be hired than those without. Globally, candidates with green skills are hired at a 54.6% greater rate than those without; in the UK, the difference is even more stark, with the hiring rate for candidates with green skills being 72% higher than those without.
If the need and the desire are there, why is this gap so stark? A January 2024 report from the UK Parliament noted that there is low public awareness of green skills and the available training options for upskilling and reskilling, which the report attributed to inconsistencies in the definition of green skills. This lack of awareness is underscored by a concerning statistic from OVO’s report; around 30% of those surveyed by the firm had never even heard of the concept of green skills.
Furthermore, the demographic makeup of key sectors in the green transition, such as heating and construction, poses unique challenges to addressing the green skills gap. The aforementioned parliamentary report notes that the sector is made up of a relatively high proportion of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), sole traders, and micro-enterprises, which may not have the time or resources to provide training to workers or to engage with policies designed to boost the green transition in the workforce.
Reskilling – the advantages and limitations
At the same time as hundreds of thousands of new green jobs are being created, a significant number of jobs in the oil and gas industry will be sunsetted as the UK transitions away from fossil fuels. According to Offshore Energies UK, 90% of oil and gas workers currently possess skills relevant to the clean energy transition.
Recently, the UK government launched its long-promised “skills passport”, an online portal allowing current oil and gas workers to log on and identify where their current qualifications will be recognised in the clean energy industry, a move that acting Scottish cabinet secretary for net zero and energy Gillian Martin called “absolutely vital” in the effort to “recognise and retain the considerable skills of oil and gas workers”.
While reskilling workers in the oil and gas industry is important, it cannot be the only solution to the growing gap. According to a report by PriceWaterhouseCooper (PWC), around one-fifth of workers in the energy sector are expected to retire or otherwise exit the workforce by the government’s 2030 clean energy deadline. Additionally, reports from the UK government note that training a skilled net zero workforce is expected to take several years, a fact of some concern given the 2030 clean energy deadline is less than half a decade away.
Furthermore, the industry has a notable lack of diversity, something which could be seen to be exacerbating the growing green skills gap. While apprenticeship schemes do exist to help bring young talent into the green workforce, many people from lower income backgrounds face significant barriers to entry for these schemes, and vocational education and training programmes are often seen as having a lower level of prestige than more traditional academic routes into industry, putting some off this pathway.
What now?
The data is clear – the green skills gap is only widening, and will require a multi-pronged approach across industry, education, and ongoing training to close. While a lack of awareness remains a significant problem, it is one that is arguably most easily tackled, through public campaigns and outreach programmes at all levels. Upskilling workers is advantageous for all, and the need is increasingly urgent – it is now time to see if proposed policy changes will be enough to solve the problem.
