Unions, trade associations and educators on the workforce transition needed to deliver the Clean Energy Mission
Evidence in this inquiry has revealed the scale of the challenge to create the UK workforce to deliver the Clean Energy Mission and to de-carbonise homes and businesses. While estimates of the roles needed and that can be created vary, the UK requires a rapid and lasting transformation of the construction sector: industry-wide investment in skills, far-reaching skills reform, and an unprecedented recruitment and upskilling drive.
Witnesses have described the potential of the “highly transferable” skills of existing oil and gas workers but warned that, large as it is, that workforce will not be enough to deliver net zero, nor able to fully re-skill on the right timeline.
Others noted that building a green workforce and moving at-risk carbon workers to new jobs “are in fact separate initiatives that may not always involve overlapping worker groups.”
Improvements to existing buildings to reduce their energy demand would represent a 13% increase in the current size of the workforce. A coordinated home retrofit programme in England could sustain over 400,000 direct jobs and 500,000 indirect jobs by 2030, and more than 1.2m direct jobs and 1.5m indirect jobs by 2050.
To meet the target of 50GW of offshore wind, the current offshore wind workforce of 32,000 must increase to more than 100,000 roles by 2030. Large numbers of workers will have to be trained or retrained.
But the current picture is of a decline in skills in sectors critical to the transition. Investment and participation in adult education more broadly have been decreasing and even with a recent boost, total skills spending will still be 23% below 2009–10 level. Employers generally invest less today than they did in the past, and major energy companies have been forced to train engineers in-house due to little progress on the wider, dedicated low carbon vocational training necessary to support a strong talent pipeline.
In the first evidence session of this inquiry the Committee heard about the complexity of even defining green jobs – or green careers as some witnesses have argued they must be seen – much less supporting skill development across all the sectors involved and aligning that with industrial and commercial need. The Committee will now turn to unions, trade associations and construction assurance bodies and the education sector for a closer look at the reality of “green” jobs and skills on the ground.
On Wednesday 26 March 2025 at 3pm:
- Brian Berry, Chief Executive at Federation of Master Builders
- Simon Ayers MBE. Chief Executive Officer at TrustMark
- James Fotherby, Senior Policy Officer at Aldersgate Group
- Anna Markova, Senior Policy Officer at Trades Union Congress
From approximately 4pm:
- David Hughes CBE, Chief Executive Officer at Association of Colleges
- Andrew Hockey, Chief Executive Officer at Engineering Construction Industry Training Board
- Tim Balcon, Chief Executive Officer at Construction Industry Training Board
- Katy Heidenreich, Supply Chain and People Director at Offshore Energies UK
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