Thomas Hopkinson
Managing director, Taylor Hopkinson Associates
Through increased investment and tough carbon-emission targets, the green energy sector in the UK continues to prosper. The Bain Report published in 2008 suggests there are 5,000 direct full-time employees in the UK large-scale wind energy industry and wave and tidal industries combined, and that the sector will deliver no less than 70,000 new jobs by 2020, encompassing both senior and mid-level management roles, as well as high-skilled labour.
The demand for talent is vast and is likely to proliferate across all sectors, from consultancy and supply-chain companies, to the energy companies themselves. Research, manufacturing, engineering, operations, maintenance, construction and development are all areas of employment growth, and will continue to develop as the industry secures investment.
As with any industry in its infancy, rapid growth often brings temporary skills shortages. Just as the water, gas and electricity sectors have experienced shortages in recent years, the green energy sector is also lacking skills.
Although government-funded training schemes are helping to provide new talent, employers are increasingly looking to the transferable skills market as a short- to medium-term fix to the problem. The UK’s engineering and maintenance sectors, with automotive, civil and offshore engineering earmarked as a critical resource for the move to ’cross skilling.’
Electrical engineers, maintenance workers, logistics and operations specialists are all in high demand and will be required to oversee upcoming green-energy projects and cutting-edge technologies.
Other transferable roles in demand range from software developers, data analysts and marine scientists for technical analysis work, to mechanical and electrical engineers for project development work.
Dan Finch, SeaEnergy Renewables development director, said: ’A step-change is coming to the offshore wind generation industry and it is coming to the UK first. Generation is moving further offshore and into more challenging conditions in the North Sea. We must recognise that the engineering skills and experience we have built up in the offshore environment are valuable and transferrable, and will be vital to the development of offshore wind generation.’
The UK’s large-scale wind energy sector will deliver no less than 70,000 new jobs by 2020
Although many engineering skills are easily transferable, requiring short conversion or ’bridge’ courses provided by energy companies, some renewable energy companies remain reluctant to take on managers and skilled workers from the engineering sectors.
Rick Eggleston, managing director of REpower, said: ’Many energy and supply-chain companies advertise for, and hold out for, candidates with direct renewables experience rather than tapping into the rich pool of transferable skills from the engineering sectors. With an expansion from 5,000 direct jobs to 50,000 by 2020, employers must take responsibility for bringing people into the industry.’
Another barrier to the transfer of skills is the misconception that the renewable energy sector does not pay well. But this is far from the case. At Taylor Hopkinson, we are seeing only a five per cent reduction in annual salaries compared with the offshore industry, for example, a level that will reduce as the sector grows. Even now, pay scales for skilled engineers can be very lucrative. Experienced wind turbine technicians can earn up to £50,000.
Scott Sutherland is a wind turbine manager at EDF Energy Renewables. ’I came into the industry from an automotive background and found that many of the skills I had were very useful for my current job in the wind sector,’ he said. ’I believe there’s no better time to join the industry. It’s a rapidly growing sector and there are massive opportunities for those with the necessary skills.’
Thomas Hopkinson
Managing director of Taylor Hopkinson Associates
Education
1999 BSc Hons Business Information Systems with French, University of West of England, Bristol
2002 BA Hons English Literature (2:1), University of Wales, Cardiff
Career
2005 Head of utilities at Ellis Fairbank, working with RWE npower, Scottish Power, ITI Energy, SLP Energy, Opus Energy, plus numerous renewable energy start-ups
2008-09 Divisional manager for energy and environment at Eden Scot. Only UK recruiter to provide support to the Round 3 Offshore Wind tender process
2009 Launched Taylor Hopkinson Associates. Achieved £0-c£350,000 turnover in first financial year
I have been interested in the renewables sector for sometime, and have read a lot of articles which claim this is better or that is better or how about a hybrid of x,y and z………but a common theme is how to get the resources to actually build, install, commision etc whether its tidal, wind or solar……I read with interest that the market should open up and that companies should be looking for personnel with transferable skills from any market to help fill the gaps but in no article or website does it mention how to get in on the act. Im not a “green” person but have been keen and eager to keep up to date with whats going on in the world of renewables, and hasten to add that the market place is pretty much just looking for people with a utilities or renewables background…….which is frustrating to the point of losing the will to apply…….especially as I have been unelmployed now for 19 months. People keep saying there is dedicated government training schemes….has any one told the Job Centres, because my local one don’t know of any. I would dearly love to get into this new arena and prove my worth, to think outside the box and give back to the world and the UK so perhaps there maybe readers which could possibly communicate how they got in whether its at the shop floor level or middle management as there is a Project Engineer/Project Manager who is eager and keen to work within this sector.
Usual hype about skills shortages.
“… the sector will deliver no less than 70,000 new jobs by 2020 …”. Most of these visionary reports are way off reality.
A the time of writing this there are 22 jobs advertised on the Taylor Hopkinson Associates website. I wonder if 700 UK jobs is more realistic and 7000 jobs in the rest of the world?
If companies have skills shortages it is usually because they expect someone else to train ready made staff and they lack the skills and ability to forward plan and run training/conversion schemes to meet their own company needs. UK management are poor at looking at the long term and only focus on short term profits by cutting areas like training – when was the last time you saw a job for a training officer? Too often companies bring foreign engineers to the UK to cover up their own inadequacies as far as training and development are concerned.
To quote Sir Andrew Green from Migration watch: “Employers should stop complaining and start training.”
As a Retired engineer trying to infuse young people into engineering I find that irrespective to all the talk about lack of engineers, the message with young people is that there is no future in engineering in this country.Perhaps there should be more information on where these jobs are. This may encourage young people to train for engineering.All they seem to here about is closures, redundacies etc. , even in the new technologies.If we do not rectify this situation in waht could be the new Industrial Revolution, we will be dependent on our european brothers to supply all the new technologise .We will then have missed the boat on the wealth creation of the future.
As ever the usual bleating from industry about skills shortages. The message to potential engineering candidates has been predictably clear for decades. Our industry (Nulear, renewables, automotive, enter current sector name here) wants people who are cheap, expendable and preferably fully trained at someone else’s expense. Why do engineering employers find it so hard to understand why kids want to work in a bank or the media? It’s not rocket science-PAY & PROSPECTS!!!!!
After several attempts to move into renewable energy from a mechanical and fabrication engineering background I have failed. Why companies wanting 100% match, not wanting to take transferable skills, not wanting to spend some time and effort uplifting potential employees from the many thousands on engineers now out of work. Well to the writer of this article, Denmark is the place to go as Vestas will lay off 7,000 people soon and this will fill your demand until 2020. Sorry but your rose coloured glasses need adjusting, you may need an engineer.