SSEN boss says skills gap keeps him awake at night

(l-r) Chris Burchell, MD of SSEN Distribution; Zoe Frogbrook, head of environment and sustainability, Northumbrian Water and Jon Butterworth, CEO, National Gas at Utility Week Live 2024

SSEN Distribution’s managing director has said skills and the supply chain are “one of the things that keeps me awake at night”.

Chris Burchell told Utility Week Live the energy sector risks missing out on the opportunity to future-proof itself if it does not take a long-term and holistic view of where skills are needed.

His concerns were echoed by senior figures at National Gas and Northumbrian Water.

Burchell said: “It’s one of the biggest challenges we face collectively. We’re doing a huge amount at SSE to try and diversify our sources of people and skills, including looking afresh at things like our training in craft skills. That hasn’t changed in decades but it needs to if we’re going to accelerate the skills agenda.”

He also stressed the need for strategic planning, pointing out that for every job a utility creates, there is a potential need for three more in the supply chain. The sector needs to be able to give suppliers signals around what volume of work will be available and when, he said.

He added: “We would like to drive the strategic planning and have a strategic investment plan. We would then like to have a holistic skill strategy that looks much longer term so that we can maximize the economic benefit of what is essentially a gift to the next generation. We’ve got a whole 25 years’ worth of careers for people if we get this right. If we miss it, because we’ve been thinking too short term, we’ll regret that for a long time.”

Speaking on the same panel, National Gas chief executive Jon Butterworth agreed, pointing out that his company has taken on 600 apprentices this year to build for the future.

He said: “We’re putting in some really in-depth training there, for example our welding academy. We’re sort of going back to where I started when I was 16, with a four-year apprenticeship. That costs a lot of money but gives you a grounding and an understanding and it also builds loyalty.”

However, Butterworth revealed the company was also looking outside of the UK to build the skills it needs. He said around half of the company’s hydrogen team had been recruited abroad, partly through “a few acquisitions of small boutique companies that we think can add value”.

“It’s definitely a problem and that’s why we’ve gone outside the UK – because the pool is too small.”

Dr Zoe Frogbrook, head of environment and sustainability at Northumbrian Water, stressed a mixed approach was needed of developing skills in-house while ensuring the wider eco-system is well staffed. She echoed Burchell’s plea for longer term thinking on projects to give the supply chain confidence.

She added: “We talk about green jobs a lot but we really need to start showing how we can support that as an industry. Being able to give suppliers a good length of contract so they can develop their own skillsets and capacity is really important.”

The session also touched on the relationship between utilities and local authorities. This is the subject of Utility Week’s new campaign calling for local area energy plans to be mandated and funded. Find out more here and read Chris Burchell’s view on the topic here.