Workforce planning to deliver clean, secure energy

The supply of skilled labour does not currently match the levels of demand expected to be required if the UK is to fulfil Government’s ambitions to deliver clean energy by 2030 and decarbonised buildings by 2050. (Conclusion, Paragraph 29)

Fortunately, there is a lot of scope for smart policy and expenditure to be used to collaborate with the whole energy sector, as well as the education and skills sector, to empower and equip existing workers and new entrants to meet demand created by the Government’s targets for clean energy and the decarbonisation of buildings. Crucially, time appears to remain available for productive change and many of the skills of the existing energy, engineering and construction workforces are highly transferable, alongside the potential for innovative and creative programmes to demonstrate crossover applicable skills from other parts of the economy. The skilled jobs that will be required, offer the promise of long-term, good careers but it is unclear that market forces alone will overcome inertia and bottlenecks. Notwithstanding the role of the private sector in investing in skills, there is a clear role for government intervention and leveraged public expenditure. (Conclusion, Paragraph 30)

There may be a need for the import of some specific skills from overseas, at least in the short term, to deliver on targets for clean energy and the decarbonisation of buildings. We heard of significant efforts by the Danish government both to manage migration and fill their significant skills gap, especially in construction and related sectors. The Government should explore measures taken by the Danish government to address their workforce and skills. However, as the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper acknowledges, longer-term solution must be focussed on home- grown talent. Work on the supply of home-grown skilled labour for energy infrastructure and decarbonising buildings needs to start now. (Conclusion, Paragraph 31) 46

The Government must continue to tackle barriers preventing existing energy sector workers transitioning successfully. Skills Passports and associated funding should be expanded. The Government in its response to us should propose how the transferability of skills across traditional boundaries and between devolved administrations could be accommodated better by accreditation regimes. The Government should put in place commitments to transition the existing local skilled labour supply within Contracts for Difference and similar clean energy support mechanisms. These should include tangible workforce transition and support targets and leverage UK manufacturing content requirements where possible. (Recommendation, Paragraph 32)

The Government should continue to develop and launch further initiatives to promote clean energy and retrofit careers among under-represented groups and those outside the existing workforce; the actions set out in the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper should be accelerated to bring down the barriers to new entrants from these groups taking up such roles in time to have a meaningful impact on the goals for clean energy and retrofit. (Recommendation, Paragraph 33)

The Government should, by the end of 2026, set out a range of further options for conditionality to leverage the short-term need for skilled immigration to boost the longer-term need for home-grown talent. An analysis of their potential impacts should be included. (Recommendation, Paragraph 34) The role of the Department and its Office for Clean Energy Jobs

For workforce planning to be effective, it is important that there is some shared definition of the jobs under discussion for support, encouragement and incentivisation; the Government’s clarifications around definitions has been helpful. We also welcome the Government taking an expansive approach to the scope of roles included and the focus on ensuring high quality, well-paid careers. (Conclusion, Paragraph 50)

In our Report on retrofitting homes for net zero we concluded that there was a reluctance to invest in courses that were associated with, among other things, uncertainty and weak promotion of careers. The Office for Clean Energy Jobs should work with its stakeholder community to tackle that uncertainty and, thereby, encourage investment in, and the promotion of, retrofit skills and careers. The Warm Homes Plan will be an opportunity to show how it will do this. (Conclusion, Paragraph 51) 47

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero should have demonstrated its firm grasp of the skills landscape by having published a workforce strategy much sooner. (Conclusion, Paragraph 52)

The Warm Homes Plan is crucial for retrofit workforce planning and should be published as soon as possible. It must set out a clear framework of responsibilities to ensure joined-up delivery. It should demonstrate the Government is putting good quality, well-paid careers, rather than just jobs, at the heart of its workforce planning. It should also demonstrate the Government is tailoring its messaging around roles in retrofit to reflect the various cohorts and motivations involved. Clear indications of levels of support for training routes should be included. (Recommendation, Paragraph 53)

The Office for Clean Energy Jobs should be effectively resourced so that its remit and activity can encompass both the clean energy and the retrofit workforces. (Recommendation, Paragraph 54) Collaborating with and supporting stakeholders

National workforce planning will need to be delivered beyond Whitehall and devolved levels of government have a crucial role to play. National plans need to recognise that delivery of the workforce may diverge according to local circumstance and need while providing both a consistent quality in career pathways, standards and training and a portability of skills across the UK’s nations. (Conclusion, Paragraph 71)

Training needs to meet the needs of employers, current and future workers. There also needs to be more certainty around the longevity of government policies. That will give confidence both to employers investing in training and to workers considering entering the workforce, upskilling and retraining. (Conclusion, Paragraph 72)

We welcome the Government’s attention to leveraging the significant potential of various levels of devolved government across different parts of the UK. They should be empowered to lead on approaches tailored to local or regional strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, the Government must provide the Office for Clean Energy Jobs and Skills England with the authority and resources to meaningfully co-ordinate policies with counterparts in the UK’s nations to ensure consistency in training and therefore the portability of skills. (Recommendation, Paragraph 73) 48

Now that the Spending Review has been published, the Government needs to accelerate its adoption of policies relevant to clean energy and retrofit skills. These policies need long timescales to be most effective. The Government should have a ten-year horizon for initiatives and funding which should be revised, and extended, every five years to give confidence to both trainers and the industry. (Recommendation, Paragraph 74)

The Government must demonstrate how it is working with employers and the education sector to deliver clear career pathways, particularly for those workers who will not go through the technical excellence colleges. It should report on the success of the Regional Skills Pilots by summer 2026 with a view to expanding them. Future funding should be allocated to employers to ensure those being trained receive real-world experience. (Recommendation, Paragraph 75)

We further recommend that Government expand and formalise ‘try-before- you-buy’ training opportunities to improve conversion rates from training into employment. Evidence received indicates that up to 70% of individuals starting construction-related FE qualifications do not complete or do not enter the sector, with FE students often lacking structured opportunities to translate classroom learning into on-site experience. SMEs, which form the backbone of the construction and retrofit supply chain, frequently operate on short-term contracts and cannot absorb the risk of taking on inexperienced trainees without support. We heard clear examples of effective early-exposure models, such as on-site skills hubs, employer- supported placements, and programmes like B4Box and the Vaillant SME apprenticeship initiative, that reduce barriers for both learners and employers. The Government should therefore expand these practical entry pathways across clean heat, low-carbon construction, and retrofit, ensuring funded, flexible, short-duration placements are available nationwide. (Recommendation, Paragraph 76)

Given the scale of workforce demand in construction and retrofit, including the need for an estimated additional 250,000 workers to meet new housing targets and millions more for retrofit we recommend that Government work with CITB, Skills England, and industry to establish a nationally recognised, industry backed construction and retrofit skills programme. Evidence demonstrates that the current system lacks alignment between education and industry, and that professional pathways remain unclear to prospective entrants. Witnesses highlighted persistent diversity gaps, including women making up less than 15% of the construction workforce, and under- representation among ethnic minority groups. A national programme, backed by CITB or a comparable body, could raise the profile of construction and retrofit as mission-driven, net-zero careers, improve the attractiveness and clarity of pathways, and support higher-quality, employer-endorsed training. We recommend that Government develop such a programme to 49 inspire new entrants, support experienced workers into teaching roles, and ensure the sector attracts a wide and diverse workforce. (Recommendation, Paragraph 77) Measures aimed at demand and at boosting skills supply directly

Consumer and public sector demand have a significant role to play in increasing the demand for, and therefore exerting influence on the supply of, skills. Longer and more detailed time frames will provide certainty not just for consumers in seeking to adopt technologies but also for employers to invest in the skills needed to develop, manufacture and install them. The demand for the work needs to come first for the investment in skills to follow. (Conclusion, Paragraph 91)

The Government has at its disposal a range of measures, not all of which involve spending public money. There is scope for using procurement, and similar policy levers, to create the demand for skilled roles. (Conclusion, Paragraph 92)

Targeting consumer demand on its own is necessary but not sufficient and public funding is needed aimed at addressing the supply of skills directly. The commitments in the Spending Review and Industrial Strategy are welcome as is the direction of travel. At some point market signals will be strong enough and funding can be scaled back but we are not at that stage yet. While public funding could be deployed across a variety of worthy initiatives, the schemes the Government chooses to fund must be robustly and regularly evaluated to ensure they adequately address the skills shortages identified in its workforce strategies. (Conclusion, Paragraph 93)

In addition to increasing the overall number of workers, we recognise that productivity improvements and new working practices will be essential to meet the scale of labour demand identified in this Report. Evidence submitted on the sheer volume of work required, including retrofitting most UK homes to EPC C by 2035 and delivering 1.5 million new homes and 5 million retrofits, with at least a quarter of a million additional workers needed for new build alone, suggests that relying solely on headcount growth will be challenging. The Government’s workforce planning should therefore explicitly consider how digital skills, new technologies and modern methods of construction can help increase productivity, improve quality and reduce bottlenecks, particularly in off-site manufacture, design, surveying, grid connection and project management. Skills England and the Office for 50 Clean Energy Jobs should work with industry to ensure that occupational standards and training provision reflect these evolving practices. (Recommendation, Paragraph 94)

The Government should, as a matter of urgency, clarify its stance on the balance of levies between electricity and gas, revisions to the EPC regime and the role of hydrogen in heating. (Recommendation, Paragraph 95)

We look forward to the Government’s Warm Homes Plan and their estimate of workforce needs and how they will meet it. The Government’s Warm Homes Plan should facilitate a greater role for local authorities to accelerate the roll-out of retrofit. (Recommendation, Paragraph 96)

The Government should carry out and publish a thorough impact assessment before deciding to use conditionality as a policy lever in procurement to mandate skilled labour requirements in contracts for clean energy retrofit works in public sector buildings. (Recommendation, Paragraph 97)

We emphasise that workforce expansion in retrofit and clean heat must go hand-in-hand with high and verifiable standards of competence. Written evidence criticised aspects of the existing skills and competence system in retrofit and related sectors, calling for tighter and more rigorous training standards, improved accreditation and the raising of quality where some courses were described as being of ‘dubious value’. Other submissions advocated expanding mandatory certification and restricting grants to certified contractors as a way to protect consumers and ensure high- quality works. The Government’s workforce strategy should therefore link investment in training to nationally recognised, portable accreditation and competence frameworks, so that consumers, social landlords and public bodies can have confidence that retrofit and clean-energy works are being carried out by properly trained and certified workers. (Recommendation, Paragraph 98)

The Government should commit immediately to at least maintaining its support for measures aimed at increasing demand for retrofit during this Parliament. It should also commit to carrying out and publishing an evaluation of the impact of its funding schemes directly addressing the supply of skills before the end of the Spending Review period. (Recommendation, Paragraph 99) 51