Harnessing our human capital from across the green skills spectrum

GREEN SKILLS & TRAINING

Inform.

When the inaugural meeting of the Hybrid Green Skills Council (HGSC) took place on 1 October 2021, it brought together leading figures from across the green skills spectrum in Wales - harnessing a wide variety of uniquely informed expert perspectives. It represented a common commitment to create the skills pipelines to meet the challenges and opportunities presented by the transition to net zero.

With most industry and government experts predicting that decarbonisation targets will be met through a blended solution of energies - generating power from Biomass, Carbon Capture, Geothermal, Fuel Pumps, Hydro, Hydrogen, Solar, Tidal and Wind technologies - some very significant question marks remain on the skills and competencies needed to give Wales a future-proofed talent pipeline capable of enabling this green transformation. The HGSC exists to bring answers to those questions: considering both the existing green-based projects, ventures and schemes already planned for Wales; and factoring in the forecasted activity to identify collective challenges and opportunities, exploring areas for knowledge share and collaboration.

“There are significant questions marks around skills - and the HGSC is here to provide answers”

One thing is certain. The launch of an independent pan-Wales HGSC drawn from across industries and sectors could not have come at a more important time. In a world that’s increasingly being defined by a shortage of skills and talent, identifying the core competencies that already exist in Wales will be a key factor in our success. With David Jukes of Costain warning that “we either decarbonise or get decarbonised”, building the green talent pipeline will be critical to our future economy; giving Wales both the talent pool to meet the workforce requirements of what appears to be extraordinary exponential growth; as well as providing a key pillar to our ‘green investable proposition’ - a competitive advantage that will secure sustainable energy investment from both the public sector and private enterprise funding from across the world.

Indeed, Wales may well be able to reskill and upskill to grasp this once-ina-generation opportunity. Whilst some people believe that we are in need of fundamental new skill sets, others (such as Leigh Hughes, Chair of the CCR Regional Skills Partnership and member of the HGSC) believe that by using the innate Welsh qualities of innovation and collaboration, we can evolve quickly to adapt the skillsets we already have. Either way, we clearly have skills gaps and disconnects right now - and a main remit of the HGSC is to work together to help identify what a resilient talent pipeline, capable of delivering on decarbonisation, looks like.

“Closing the skills gaps and disconnects to grasp the phenomenal opportunities”

If we achieve our aims as a HGSC, we can grasp the phenomenal opportunities that the forthcoming green revolution offers us in terms of well-trained, highly-paid, sustainable employment for communities right across Wales - helping build inclusive prosperity and attract the kind of inward investment that can make us a genuine worldleader; and even an exporter of green technologies and solutions.

With major Welsh-based employers such as Airbus, BOC, Costain, Dow, Dwr Cymru and Wales & West Utilities working increasingly closely with academia to find the right way forward in terms of both the energy and human resource - and with government working at all levels to establish a common approach to the future of energy in Wales - the initial findings from the HGSC are sure to inform both debate and action plans, as industry and education begins to shape workforce planning for Green Wales plc.

Two things are already clear: there’s never been a more important time for green skills - or the Hybrid Green Skills Council.