The Energy Institute is warning that the UK’s energy industry is suffering from a deep skills crisis, one that has been seeded by decades of neglect.
In a major new report, the EI says that, until relatively recently, the situation had been manageable.
“However, over the last decade, the risk of future serious shortages in SET (science, engineering and technology) skills has emerged, exacerbated by increasing global demand, large-scale downsizing leading to lack of recruitment into the energy sector during the 1980s, and a large section of the industry’s workforce rapidly approaching retirement.
The EI worked with Norman Broadbent and Deloitte to establish the scope of the problem and the level of awareness among energy companies of this potential threat to their business activities. While, in data terms, 2007 is the cut-off, the issues remain.
Key findings include:
More than 70% of the energy companies surveyed believed they would not have sufficient leadership talent to meet the industry’s future challenges.
Poaching competitors’ employees was expected to be an issue, with most companies perceiving themselves as potential victims rather than perpetrators.
Internal training and development programmes are delivering insufficient numbers of trained personnel to develop into senior roles.
Energy professionals have traditionally been very loyal to their employers, leading the industry to expect stability among its workforce (90% of under-35s expect to stay in the energy industry for more than five years).
The main shortage area was for technical specialists, in particular engineers. The level of specialisation required in many cases led to recruitment being mostly from within the industry.
They perceived a lack of interest in the industry as a bigger barrier than lack of skills in recruiting outside of the industry.
Competition from non-technical commercial sectors for the graduate pool was an issue – attracting even technically qualified people.
In order to find the right levels of skills, most companies still predominantly and actively seek more experienced workers.
The study offers a strategy for the future – a roadmap based on mostly simple steps that any sensible boardroom and senior management should be able to get their heads around. Recommendations include:
Raise the profile of the energy industry as one of the most exciting to work in to combat increasing competition from other industries for these shortage skills – the sector needs to be well presented to young people as a prime career choice.
Re-skill and cross-train existing or new staff to combat the decline in scientific, engineering and technical (SET) skills – support for training organisations, particularly universities, is critical if those organisations are to meet industry needs on high-level skills.
Get the rewards right for engineers and technical specialists in order to combat decreasing numbers of SET graduates choosing to enter a SET career – SET careers need to be seen as attractive and financially rewarding to compete with “high-flying” roles in finance, management and law.
Develop new and potential graduates at an early stage to combat lack of experienced hires for key roles in an expanding industry – employers need to be more innovative in their methods of training and development, looking for efficient and effective ways of benchmarking employees’ competence and giving them the experience and support to develop those skills.
Crucially, companies are urged to treat skills shortages and leadership development as strategic boardroom issues that need long-term planning.
They are advised to invest in in-house training and development programmes to upgrade skills of existing and future workforce.
They are urged to develop strategies to manage retention of experience – even beyond retirement – and transfer of knowledge. And to make a more creative use of their experienced workforce and prospective returners to combat the rapid strides towards larger-scale retirement year on year.
This approach is already being used, to some extent, by the North Sea offshore industry.
They must engage with universities to offer technical support, student placements and allow recruits to return to university to promote the industry to future graduates.
Bosses need to understand and make it clear to potential recruits that the energy industry really does offer a worthwhile and fulfilling long-term career.
However, there’s a message for academia, too. Basically, it needs to make more effort and be more relevant.
To do this, it needs to engage closely with industry to develop and deliver qualifications that meet business needs.
Academia must demonstrate the “can do” skills of students to employers when seeking to secure work placements, and it should liaise with professional membership bodies to provide students with a head start towards professional recognition, and use such bodies as sources of useful information and contacts.
For example, the EI and Society of Petroleum Engineers have strong relationships with both universities in Aberdeen.
In a statement accompanying the report, James Smith, chairman of Shell UK and current president of the EI says: “A major rebuild of Britain’s energy system will need large numbers of people with science and engineering skills to get the job done. This spells opportunity for rewarding careers and job satisfaction. It also means we have to close the skills gap fast.
“Closing the science and engineering skills gap is a big job for government, industry, schools and universities. The skills needed are diverse so apprenticeships for craft skills matter every bit as much as degrees in design engineering.
“There are great careers for men and for women, and we will need to tap into all this talent to secure the UK’s future energy.”
Recommended for you
