Cliff Notes
- The UK government has announced an £18 million plan to train oil and gas workers for roles in the expanding clean energy sector, amid a decline projected to result in 40,000 job losses by the early 2030s.
- The initiative aims to create 400,000 additional green jobs by 2030, with a focus on skills transferability and establishing “Technical Excellence Colleges” for targeted training.
- Unions have welcomed the plan but stress the need for substantial investment in a domestic supply chain to ensure the creation of actual jobs in the green Economy.
Oil and gas workers offered cash to retrain, in major plan for future clean energy workforce
Ministers have unveiled their flagship plan to train and recruit workers for the booming clean energy sector, which it is hoping to supercharge in the next five years.
Up to £18m of new money has been pledged by the UK and Scottish governments specifically to move those working in the oil and gas sector into new roles.
Their jobs are about to fall off a cliff as the industry declines, with at least 40,000 of the current 115,000 jobs forecast to disappear by the early 2030s.
Almost all of those roles are thought to be fairly easily transferable into green industries – requiring little more than a few months of extra training.
But in the absence of government help, workers have been moving abroad, industry says, taking with them the expertise Britain badly needs to for its new greener energy system.
And it has left them feeling forgotten about after years of working to keep the lights on, and increasingly swayed by Reform UK, both GMB and Unite unions have warned Labour.
Pledge to double green jobs by 2030
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has said that creating jobs in sectors like carbon capture and storage and hydrogen would help “create a future for those in the North Sea communities”.
The new £18m will pay for careers advice, training, and “skills passports” to enable oil and gas workers to make the switch without having to repeat qualifications.
The cash was announced on Sunday in the new Clean Energy Jobs Plan, which details how the government hopes to make good on its promise to double green jobs by 2030.