22
TRAINING AND SKILLS WILL PLAY KEY ROLES IN THE FUTURE OF ENERGY By Tsvetana Paraskova
Retaining and hiring talent in the energy industry and training and upskilling employees for their current and future roles is key to maintaining adequate supply of conventional fuels as well as expanding renewables capacity and fostering innovation in clean energy. The energy transition will need hundreds of thousands of talent entering the energy industry workforce, while oil and gas will continue to need skilled professionals as countries look to boost their energy security by ensuring conventional energy supply, especially domestically, where possible. Following two major price slumps in the past decade and the growing global ESG trend, many skilled professionals in the oil and gas industry have either moved to other spheres entirely, such as tech, or plan to move to renewables in the short to medium term. ESG plays an important part in many talent decisions to switch jobs from oil and gas to renewables. This leaves the conventional energy sector competing for talent acquisition not only with all other industries but also with the clean energy industry. Furthermore, young people tend to overlook and dismiss opportunities in the energy sector because they associate it with “dirty fossil fuels”, and oil and gas companies scramble to hire new talent to train and upskill in a tight labour market. The energy transition in countries aiming for net-zero emissions in 2050, including the UK, provides opportunities for new talent and for training of energy industry employees to transfer their skills to the renewables energy sector, especially in areas such as offshore wind.
www.ogv.energy I July 2022
Growing Shortage of Technical Skills in the Energy Industry
ESG concerns are now a factor in whether to join or leave an energy firm.
More than 75% of energy professionals are considering a career change within three years, with the majority of workers favouring a switch to renewables, according to Airswift, an international workforce solutions provider within the energy, process, and infrastructure industries.
“Yet many renewable workers also moved to traditional sectors such as oil and gas in the last 18 months and half of professionals in fossil fuel sectors say their organisation’s ESG policies are sufficiently robust. This indicates that recent decarbonisation efforts are helping boost employee retention and recruitment across traditional energy sectors,” Airswift says.
Airswift’s sixth annual Global Energy Talent Index (GETI) report showed in March that the global drive to clean energy has accelerated a mass migration of skills from traditional to renewable sectors. The survey, which tracks global energy recruitment and employment trends, also found that there is a growing shortage of technical skills across the energy industry. This industry-wide technical skills shortage means all energy sectors are now more likely to seek those skills outside their company. To compile the report, Airswift and Energy Jobline surveyed 10,000 energy professionals and hiring managers in 166 countries across five industry sub-sectors: oil and gas, renewables, power, nuclear, and petrochemicals. Over 75% of professionals in traditional energy sectors would consider switching to another sector within three years and most potential career-changers in oil and gas, power, and nuclear would move to renewables, the report found. This is partly influenced by concerns over climate change with over 80 % of professionals across all sectors saying that
“Instead of fighting for a limited pool of existing talent, the industry should expand the talent net to sectors such as technology where there are growing skills overlaps,” Airswift CEO Janette Marx commented. “An engineer on an offshore oil rig has many of the raw skills needed for an offshore wind-tohydrogen project. That said, some firms will simply look to fill skills gaps by automating more jobs and we are already seeing automation increasing,” Marx added. Specifically in the oil and gas sector, the survey found that 82 % of oil and gas professionals would consider leaving for another energy sector within three years, and the majority (54 %) would choose renewables. And the talent migration is already underway, with the majority (28 %) of those who joined the renewables sector in the last 18 months transitioning from oil and gas. “Oil and gas companies could retain talent by offering more internal transfers to green energy divisions, combining career progression opportunities with ESG. The sector should continue to promote its role in global development efforts and as a bridge to clean energy, supplying
