Decarbonisation across the UK economy will rely on engineering solutions and a skilled engineering workforce. Much of the workforce tasked with delivering that transformation is already in employment, while many are now in education.
The Net zero workforce report summarises recent reports on the ‘green jobs’ and engineering skills required to meet this challenge and presents recommendations for addressing some of the issues found.
Several issues were identified, including:
- Forecasts lacking clarity around the proportion of new and replacement jobs
- Forecasts not distinguishing between technical and non-technical jobs in the industry
- Little consideration of STEM uptake in schools to ensure future skills
- Standard classifications may not reflect latest roles and industries
- All reports use different forecast timescales
It is clear from the review that there is a strong demand for engineering skills. For some industries this aligns with expected rates of retirement, while elsewhere re-skilling is a major challenge.
The Climate Change Committee has estimated that “Between 135,000 and 725,000 net new jobs could be created by 2030 in low-carbon sectors, such as buildings retrofit, renewable energy generation and the manufacture of electric vehicles”. The government itself has tasked the Green Jobs Delivery Group with supporting “…the delivery of up to 480,000 skilled green jobs by 2030 that will be created and supported thanks to government policies set out in the Prime Minister’s Energy Security Strategy and Net Zero Strategy”
