Skills shortage – in a region near you

Utilities have a lot to learn from other sectors if they want to compete for talent in the UK's meager engineering skills pool says Christopher Graham.

With significant investment in the UK’s energy sector over the past 12 months, the issue of attracting and developing talent in order to keep up with growth has been pushed into the spotlight.  

Construction, engineering and utility sectors are experiencing a well-documented shortage in Science, Technology, English and Maths (STEM) skills that is particualrly affecting certain regions throughout the UK.

Companies are facing the prospect of a crippling skills gaps as engineers retire without enough apprentices and graduates to replace them. At a national level, long-term projects such as Construction 2025 are having a knock-on effect locally, and Cumbria has created headlines in recent months as it gears up to tackle the requirements of a new nuclear power station.

With the majority of these projects just around the corner – and many already off the ground – more must be done by both industry and business leaders to ensure that the workforce is ready.

At the heart of the problem is a huge need for better educational facilities.

Who’s winning the race?

The first national UK Onshore Oil & Gas College, announced this November, is an exemplar of the right approach.

Crucially, the institute – headquartered in Blackpool – will have ties to Chester, Redcar and Cleveland, Portsmouth and Glasgow and will provide everything from A-level equivalent qualifications to postgraduate degrees. This breadth of training and variance of entry levels will not only nurture the next generation but provide people with the opportunity to hone any basic skills they already have.

Business Enterprise, along with and energy minister, Matthew Hancock MP, is backing the college and has emphasised the opening of the facility as a prime opportunity for thousands of young people to enter the job market whilst harnessing competiveness and helping the UK economy remain strong.

Similarly, Doncaster and Birmingham are leaps ahead when it comes to attracting talent; plans for an HS2 college to be headquartered across the two cities are underway. Due to open in 2017, the scheme will look to bridge the gap between education and the workplace, developing a talent pool of high-level engineers ready to enter in-demand roles.

September 2014 saw Newcastle College welcome 70 students to its state-of-the-art Rail Academy in Gateshead. The £5m training academy plans to close the engineering skills gap in the rail industry and create a pipeline of talent to fill employment opportunities. 

Still some way to go

While these initiatives are encouraging, it’s important not to let complacency creep in – and it must be said that there are some sectors, including utilities, which have a way to go before they can claim to match the kind of best practice outlined above.

Furthermore, utilities are among a range of engineering-based sectors which need to address the skills requirements of projects and investments that are happening now – not just five years down the line.

To do this, businesses need to commit to collaborating with local schools, colleges and universities. The scope for this is huge and can be executed across a range of levels, from encouraging staff to visit schools and speak for an hour each week about career opportunities, to supporting a dedicated apprenticeship scheme where young people gain hands-on experience.

A good example of the latter is Nissan, which provided colleges in the North East with cars and machinery to ensure that when students graduated, they left as a Nissan apprentice.  

STEM qualifications will be vital to ensure that the UK delivers on investment in the energy sector, particularly where new technology such as wind and waste management.

In addressing the regional skills shortage, the UK – and the North in particular – can be considered as a serious contender in the global energy market. Our challenge is to continue to attract and develop talent so that we can keep pace with investment during the next 25 years.

Energy and utility providers should continue to learn from businesses in other sectors which are bridging the gap between education and industry, or risk a knock-on effect in the long-term.