The Energy Sector

Graeme Thomson

Project Manager – Scotland

29 March 2012

The Workforce of the Future

• Sector Skills Council for gas, power, waste

management and water industries.

• The National Skills Academy for Power.

• Licensed by Government and working under

the guidance of the UK Commission for

Employment and Skills (UKCES).

• ‘To ensure our industries have the skills they

need now and in the future’.

Energy & Utility Skills

Our Vision

“To provide solutions to develop the skills

of the workforce across the footprint

which will enable employees to contribute

more effectively to the future profitability

of their respective organisations.”

Sector Challenges

■ Ageing workforce

■ Skills shortages/ gaps

■ Declining talent pool

■ Changing infrastructure

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■ Global skills marketplace

■ Perception and

attractiveness of the sector

• 90,000 new recruits in our sector over next 5

years (8000 new trainees)

• 1/3 of technical workforce will leave

• 1/2 of engineers will retire

• Poor career image not attracting quality

applications

• Significant growth in renewable energy sectors

• Lack of systemic skills investment in supply

chain

The Scale of the Problem

Sector vacancies to 2016:

• 9,000 + vacancies at Levels 2-6 in power

• 2,000 + vacancies in the Gas Distribution

Networks (GDNs)

• Development of Energy from Waste

• As many again for supply chain?

Sector Growth

Renewables Investment & Jobs in Scotland

• £315m investment - 2422 jobs

• A further £6m and 50 jobs in the pipeline • Gamesa: Offshore Wind Technology Centre. Up to 130 jobs

• EnergyHunt: will maintain Gaoh Energy’s met mast for Moray Firth wind farm

• Dron&Dickson: £6m investment from Clydesdale Bank.

• Burntisland Fabrications: construction work for Vattenfall’s Ormonde wind farm in NW England

• I&H Brown: contract from RWE for Gwynt y Mor wind farm

• Jones Bros: new base in Inverness, 6 jobs; contract from Eneco for 51MW wind farm

• PV Solar UK: 22 graduate jobs

Source: DECC

Renewables Investment & Jobs in Scotland (cont)

• Statkraft: £60m investment into 52.5MW Baillie onshore wind farm. Operated by Baillie WindFarm Ltd

• Burcote Wind: £5.7m investment from Hotbed

• RJ McLeod: contract for Statkraft’s 52.5MW Baillie onshore wind farm; £17m contract for Scrabster Harbour

• Carbon Free Developments and Adam Smith College: wind farm to pay for 125 apprenticeships

• Helius Energy: £44m of contracts awarded for 7.2MW biomass plant. Up to 120 jobs

• RWE: recruiting 30 staff at biomass plant

• Land Energy: at least 14 jobs at biomass plant

• Private hydro scheme: £3.5m investment into local contractors in Argyllshire. At least 20 jobs

Source: DECC

Renewables Investment & Jobs in Scotland (cont)

• Alstom: recruiting 15 staff

• Rio Tinto: 12 jobs at 5MW hydro plant

• MAC: £170,000 contract from AWS Ocean Energy. 5 jobs

• ASL: £8m of investments secured

• Aquamarine Power: £7m investment from shareholders and £3.4m loan from Barclays

• Gael Force Group: £900,000 contract from Ocean Power Technologies

• ARED, Vattenfall and Technip: planned European Offshore

• Wind Deployment Centre

• Banks Group: planned 80MW Kype Muir wind farm. Up to 50 jobs.

• Diageo: planned £6m investment into biomass plant.

Source: DECC

About The National Skills Academy for Power

‘To ensure that, through collaboration, we develop the capacity, capability,

quality and consistency of training and education to deliver the skills needs

of a sustainable UK Power sector’

■ Established in 2010

■ Addressing critical skills issues in power sector

■ Facilitates effective, quality assured, available training

■ Employer led, membership organisation

■ Raises the profile of power Sector

■ Drives excellence in skills

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collaboration

Our Skills Academy Members

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Board and Strategic Steering Group: Cross cutting themes for all networks include standardisations of authorisations; common approach to training initiatives, supervisory development, sector attraction, quality assured skills provision and competency accord

• Skills mapping

• Multi site flexible skills

• Careers Pathway Generation

• Skills requirements and size of need by skillset

• Mapping training provision needs

• Apprenticeship development Renewable

• Qualification mapping & job families

• Apprenticeship mapping

• Qualification development including rapid response

Transmission & Distribution

• Workforce Planning with DNOs

• National Approach to Installer Competence

• Stakeholder influence (DECC Smart roll out team)

Metering

Power Sector Employer Networks

The Renewables Network Priorities

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■ Renewable Training Network

■ Regional foresight development

■ Specific industry mapping

■ Qualification development

The Transmission and Distribution Network Priorities

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■ The Competency Accord

including:

– Qualification mapping

– Job families

– Common approach to

authorisations

■ Apprenticeship mapping

■ Qualification development

Competency Accord

Development of a platform to hold registrations

accessible by all

■ Deliver a consistent and common approach to competency, skills and qualifications

■ Career pathways include qualification mapping and job families

■ Workforce Planning Model indicates roles for developing common competencies

■ Robust Quality Assurance model built in

■ Possibility of cost savings compared to other Safety Passport schemes

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together

Apprentice Mapping

Mapping of the content will compare and contrast the programmes

■ Detail of programmes run by 5 employers:

– Distribution, jointing, fitters and OHL

■ Frameworks will be the same with some minor unit differences

■ Skills and additional training including induction content may be different

■ Also understanding the scope and breadth of Apprentice programmes in the Generation Network

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Purpose of Apprentice Mapping

To scrutinise the common content and use to:

■ Identify efficiencies and best practice

■ Debate approaches and formulate a streamlined approach

■ Create a costing model for companies who do not have an Apprentice scheme

■ Formulate costs involved with apprentice delivery for the Talent Bank project

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skills

together

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SMART METER ROLLOUT: WORKFORCE PLANNING

MODELS

Energy Supplier Customers

EON 5.5

British Gas 15.7

Scottish Power 5.2

Npower 6.6

SSE 9.25

EDF Energy 8.0

Power & Gas Total 50+ Million Meters

Career Planning Tool

Why a Career Planning Tool?

• To highlight the many varied and exciting

roles which exist in the Power Sector.

• To show clearly defined career routes for

people both into and across the power

sector.

• To support the development of the current

and future workforce in order to keep the

lights on.

What will the Career Planning Tool do?

Help individuals to;

• understand the different job roles in the power sector

• understand the skills, competence and qualifications they need

to do these jobs

• identify additional skills individuals need to progress from their

current roles along one of the many different career paths.

• identify suitable job roles based on their existing sector specific

and non-sector specific qualifications, skills and experience

The CPT will cover the Generation, T&D, Metering and Renewable

sectors and will be accessible through the Think Power website and

Skills Academy website (via a link).

Career Planning Tool

SIP Actions (extract)

• Make sector attractive to young people

• Promote opportunities to those already in

the workforce who may consider changing

job/career

• Increase the number of Apprenticeship

places available to enable new technician

level entrants

• Flexible training framework – to provide

short courses to enable those moving in

to the energy sector to apply their existing

skills in a new context

• Ensure adequate facilities to provide

specialist training

• Engaging appropriately with employers to

ensure requisite flow of intelligence from

industry to inform ongoing skills

development

EU Skills / Skills Academy activities

• Think Power website including new Career

Planning Tool

• New EIF2 funded project to increase

careers advice and guidance

• Energy training database under

development for Scotland (with SDS,

OPITO & Summit Skills)

• Roll out of Renewable Training Network into

Scotland to provide quality assured

transition training & extending this for new

skills development (EIF2 project)

• Talent Bank – training people to support

industry needs

• Supply chain project (EIF2 project)

• Strong Scottish Employers Forum – chaired

by SSE

Supporting Scotland’s

Energy Skills Investment

Plan (SIP)

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CONCLUSION

• The skills challenges facing the energy sector need to be addressed quickly, before they get worse

• The sector needs to be made more attractive by showing people what they can achieve by being a part of it

• Flexible and timely routes to competence need to be developed to meet employers needs

• Clear alignment between EU Skills/National Skills Academy for Power key activities and projects and Scotland’s Skills Investment Plan for the Energy Sector

• Desire to collaborate with SDS, training providers and other SSC’s to ensure a holistic and co-ordinated approach to the sector challenges for Scotland