Memorandum submitted by Energy and Utility
Skills
OVERVIEW
We believe that skills are a key factor in delivering
low carbon technologies in a green economy. However this has been
an area of fragmented solutions, duplication of effort and low
strategic priority. To overcome this, we have undertaken a lot
of preparatory work to develop collaborative approaches because
we believe they will be both more effective and will cost the
country less. However it is clear to us, that this is accorded
a low priority by some government departments, for whom these
initiatives do not match their own priorities. Action is now needed
to support this work and drive it forward to deliver against its
potential.
ANALYSIS
To be effective we need to be able to plan for
new skills, develop appropriate skills solutions and be able to
deliver them to the wide variety of employers, who will develop
and deliver our low-carbon future.
This means:
1. Collaboration with Government and industry
strategic policy makers to ensure that skills' planning is effective
in each major technology or market initiative. This means recognising
the skills dimension during planning, identifying the lead times,
funding the development of skills delivery programmes during the
planning stage and being willing to pump prime skills investment
for "early adopters" of new initiatives. Closer working
with the economic regulators has the potential to link skills
preparation work with strategic low carbon technology planning
and could lead to greater collaboration on achieving greater penetration
of new skills throughout the supply chains of the power companies.
2. Collaboration amongst the employer led bodies
tasked with supporting employers to get the skills they need.
The Renewable Energy Skills Group comprises AssetSkills, Cogent,
ConstructionSkills, ECITB, EU Skills, Lantra, SEMTA and SummitSkills,
who have come together to deliver this agenda. The initial focus
is on research, but is expected to lead into broader collaboration
on qualifications and delivery. Funding for the first research
phase which will cover the whole of the UK, has been agreed in
principal by DECC and is imminent, while collaborative research
in Scotland is nearing completion. Further funding to ensure delivery
will require the Departments responsible for funding skills and
training across the four Nations to have policies aligned to the
low-carbon agenda.
3. Developing delivery tools through collaboration
on skills and qualifications. The experts believe that many of
the skills needed are often to be found in a non-standard of mix
of skills from a number of sources. Supporting the Renewable Energy
Skills Group is a good way of getting these solutions developed.
4. Developing delivery mechanisms. These will
vary from the very successful Scottish construction skills model,
through the more problematic Train to Gain experience to initiatives
such as the National Skills Academy for Power. Through collaboration,
they have the potential to give us the tools that will deliver
both new skills and innovation in their delivery. These mechanisms
(and the collaboration with a significant number of Sector Skills
Councils and Bodies) can provide a powerful platform for engaging
with employers to focus the skills development initiatives in
ways that suit their needs.
5. Developing an understanding of the importance
of this agenda of skills for a low carbon economy. Our research
indicates that the Power Industry has a big challenge in developing
the skills it needs to deliver its existing commitments. If it
can succeed, through the way it develops its National Skills Academy
for Power, it will create the collaborative mechanisms that will
drive new skills through their supply chain, to the "hard
to reach" smaller companies necessary to deliver the low
carbon agenda. This will significantly enhance the country's skills
base for the low carbon economy. (If the NSAP is not created,
the demand for skills needs from the core energy sector will compete
with the additional skills needed for the Low Carbon economy and
the whole economy will suffer.) However delivering these initiatives
is not easy. In times of increasing need arising from changing
Energy policy, our attempts to increase the scope of the NSAP
to support this work is facing difficulties because of the lack
of funding available to the Learning and Skills Council. There
is a real risk, in times of financial hardship, of not grasping
the opportunities to drive change but to choose the lowest possible
cost, which would establish a much weaker NSAP.
Finally many of the skills needed will be incremental,
adding new capabilities to individuals with established skills.
This has two implications. People who develop those incremental
skills will not obtain full new qualifications and they are not
eligible for Train to Gain type support. This means that many
SMEs will not be "early adopters" of new low carbon
technologies. It also means that we will not be able to use one
of the Government's main tools for promoting new skills (Train
to Gain) to support the introduction of new low carbon technologies.
The second implication is that we will need to "backfill"
the jobs of the newly up skilled people if we are not to create
market strain and therefore extra costs from the introduction
of new technologies. These issues need to be recognised and addressed.
6. Working with a wide range of employer size.
Although many of the skills initiatives will need to work for
the largest internationally owned companies, they also need to
work for micro businesses. For example we need to work with the
40,000 employers (many of them sole traders) of the 120,000 people
on the GasSafe register, who via gas utilisation will be key to
delivering some new technologies such as smart metering and the
innovative control systems that will inevitably follow. Skills
policies that are able to work across the range of employers are
often difficult to facilitate.
7. However in spite of these difficulties, we
passionately believe that these collaborative approaches will
cost less than the alternative diverse approaches that have largely
been adopted so far. We also believe that it will deliver new
skills more effectively to the benefit of the UK economy.
June 2009
APPENDIX
RENEWABLE RESEARCH FOR THE NATIONAL SKILLS
ACADEMY FOR POWER BUSINESS PLAN
The challenge is considerable. In addition to
the rapid expansion required in renewables, many of the roles
required are only just becoming fully understood. Additionally,
the traditional, thermal generation sector of the Power Sector
faces its own skills challenge. With 25% of its workforce expected
to retire over the next ten years companies operating in this
arena will find themselves competing with renewables for recruits
during this time.
The report draws on interviews with fifty five
organisations; including industry, education and training, government
and NGOs. Alongside a qualitative analysis of skills issues, a
quantitative element shows the required workforce size for meeting
2020 targets.
The key findings include:
— Skills shortages are already apparent,
with high levels of churn and rising wages levels reported by
some and most industry respondents having experienced recruitment
problems.
— Based on a 35Gw (medium growth) scenario
the renewable generation sector will require 9,619 new learners
by 2020.
— In the more immature sectors eg marine,
a lack of skills is holding back industry, and lack of industry
holding back skills.
— An acute shortage of experienced trainers
in the sector.
— Some strong links between particular
educators and companies but overall links are fragmentary, with
no cohesive national response. The UK's private independent educators
find it difficult to get involved in training. Whereas, universities
& colleges are initiating links between themselves.
— No renewables-specific apprenticeships
currently exist, which could put off many potential recruits.
— Training infrastructure is lacking. Some
international employers believed that training facilities abroad
are more developed and the quality of education better.
— The renewables sector, in contrast to
the Power Sector as a whole, is highly attractive to potential
employees. However, a lack of clear career paths directly into
the sector is hindering attempts to exploit its attractiveness
to potential recruits however.
— Renewable skills are not new, but in
some roles the mix of skills is. Multi-skilled employees are particularly
important for SMEs.
— There is a need to identify where current
skills clusters are, and where future renewables sites will be
located. The particular route into the sector, and the skill level
involved, affects the need for local training.
Both the NSAP and EU Skills are focused on building
collaboration across the range of sector bodies that have an interest
in renewable energy and the associated technologies for the Power
Sector.
As the labour markets for renewable energy sit
across many of the established sectors covered by a range of UK
Sector Skills Councils (SSC) and sector bodies a Renewable Energy
Project Group has agreed a shared commitment to create a Skills
Strategy to support the renewables agenda, including the Engineering
Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) and 7 other
SSCs. EU Skills is currently leading the co-ordination of this
Renewable Energy Skills Strategy and will use existing industry
groups across the collaboration to consult on the development
of this strategy.
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