Demand for green jobs in the UK is exponentially outpacing the available workforce—creating a rapidly emerging deficit of more than 200,000 green-skilled workers in the energy sector¹. At a bare minimum, the green talent pool now needs to double to keep pace with the projected demand². Otherwise, Labour is at risk of not having the available workforce to achieve its mission of making Britain a clean energy superpower by 2030 and capture the Net Zero "growth opportunity of the 21st century."³
This letter recommends a distinct role for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero in delivering high-quality clean energy jobs by 2030 through essential investments into 'mission-critical' infrastructure and immediate actions for the Office for Clean Energy Jobs to announce a generational 20-year skills and workforce action plan.
The UK skills and employment systems were not designed for the scale or pace of a complex transition like Net Zero. While the focus for becoming a clean energy superpower is on the creation of 650,000 new roles, in reality, a fresh pipeline of approximately 200,000 highly-skilled green workers will be required⁴, with around 4 million workers—more than one-eighth of the UK workforce—also needing to be reskilled by 2030.⁵
Developing and sustaining a workforce—full of highly-skilled green talent—will be crucial for the success of this mission, and frankly, the UK is a long way short of having the workforce required to meet these ambitions⁶. There are four main challenges contributing to this issue:
An exclusionary green talent pipeline
Information and communication failures at key decision points in the education system leave young people subject to a perceived "lack of prestige" of essential apprenticeships and trade-based careers that make up the majority of the clean energy workforce⁷. This has created a range of social barriers, especially for women⁸ and those from marginalised and underrepresented backgrounds, to accessing clean energy opportunities⁹.
Decreasing skills investment
An overly complex landscape, with a lack of support for businesses to navigate it, has made it increasingly difficult to identify and use appropriate training programs, leading many to disengage from the system entirely. This has resulted in UK employer training expenditure reaching its lowest level since 2011¹⁰, with far fewer workers having access to essential green skills training¹¹, making it difficult for workers to progress to higher-skilled green energy roles.
Difficulties accessing and retaining talent
Inadequate coordination between employment services and employers has made it more difficult than ever to access talent¹². Instead, businesses rely on informal relationships over formal pathways because of the negative perceptions of candidates. Given the higher pay demands of green jobs¹³, with a smaller pool of talent to choose from, businesses must risk losing talent to those with more resources, hiring under-qualified workers—worsening the UK's skills mismatch¹⁴—or miss out on clean energy projects entirely.
An inability for long-term workforce planning
Businesses' ability to engage in long-term workforce planning has been undermined by historically confusing and inconsistent policy messages and actions¹⁵. This has resulted in a lack of investment in the capabilities needed for green processes and requirements as employers are unsure of the skills and talent required.
Labour has set out strong criteria for this mission: (1) delivering energy security; (2) protecting billpayers; (3) providing good jobs; and (4) climate leadership. Future commitments to building the workforce that will deliver these should also consider (5) building a “just” green-talent supply to evaluate the initiatives needed to deliver the workforce for 2030 and beyond.
Option 1: Business as usual
Risks: Incentivises training spend, creates clean energy jobs, and promises an action plan for the future workforce but addresses symptoms, not root causes. Does not guarantee training will be 'green' skills or that job creation will improve a transition to a just green-talent supply.