Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 30
30
Accepted
Paragraph: 112
UK workforce skills for energy decarbonisation remain deficient, lacking detailed assessment data.
Conclusion
The UK workforce is currently deficient in many of the skills relevant to several aspects of energy decarbonisation. At present the information available on the scale of the problem is insufficiently detailed to inform good policy making.
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges skill deficiencies, highlighting existing initiatives like the Green Skills Plan and Green Jobs and Skills Report, and states it is working with ONS to improve green jobs data. It also established the Clean Energy Workforce Office to coordinate skills activity.
Paragraph Reference:
112
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Government published the Green Skills Plan in January 2023, outlining how the UK will ensure it has the skilled workforce to deliver Net Zero. The Plan highlighted key actions the Government is taking to support green skills, including boosting the number of apprenticeships in relevant sectors, reforming technical qualifications and launching new green skills bootcamps. The Department for Education’s ‘Green Jobs and Skills Report: 2023 Update’ was published in December 2023, providing new data on the progress of the UK’s green economy and its workforce. This includes an updated estimate of ‘green jobs’ in the UK from the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) Environmental Goods and Services Sector statistics. The report estimates there were 540,000 green jobs across the UK in 2021, an increase of 21% from 2019, with growth projected to grow to over 780,000 in 2030, a 45% increase from 2021. The Government recognises the need for more granular information to inform policy-making in this area and is working with ONS to further improve the quality of green jobs data and develop additional metrics. DESNZ, working with other government departments, has recently established the Clean Energy Workforce Office to coordinate government activity on skills across the breadth of the clean energy sector.