Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 17
17
The Department recognises the need to upskill the private sector to have the capacity and...
Conclusion
The Department recognises the need to upskill the private sector to have the capacity and capability to provide goods and services that will contribute to the government’s net zero goals.63 We have recently reported that while the failure of the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme was largely down to design and timetable it was also hampered by a lack of workers with the necessary skills.64 The Department agreed that the private-sector workforce does not currently have the necessary skills in sufficient quantities; however, it is confident that the commitments in the Strategy will motivate individuals to seek training and allow government to, for example, hit its target of installing 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028.65 The Department told us that the industry is also confident that it can retrain heating engineers as heat pump engineers, and the Heat Pump Association runs 55 Local Government Association, para 2.11 56 Q 17 57 C&AG’s Report, Local government and net zero in England, Session 2021–22, HC 304, 16 July 2021, para 17 58 Q 17 59 Energy Systems Catapult, page 4 60 Q 17 61 Q 18 62 Q 18 63 Q 69 64 Committee of Public Accounts, Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme, Twenty-seventh Report of Session 2021–22, HC 635, 1 December 2021 65 Qq 68–69 Achieving Net Zero: Follow up 15 a course aimed at training those with transferrable skills in less than a week.66 However, NAPIT told us that short courses do not go far enough to create a workforce confident in installing clean-heat measures.67 NAPIT also flagged to us a paper by the Institute of Public Policy Research warning of possible workforce shortages as more than one in three construction workers are over 50 years old, and the proportion of workers aged below 30 has declined over the last five years.68
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Spring 2023 5.2 The Net Zero Strategy set out the government’s initial response to the Green Jobs Taskforce. 5.3 This includes plans to work with industry to create the skilled workforce needed to deliver our climate targets. This includes green apprenticeships, retraining bootcamps, setting up the Green Jobs Delivery Group with industry, and publishing a climate and sustainability strategy for education and children’s’ services. For example, heat pump installer training is taking place across the United Kingdom, with numerous providers offering courses. Through the Skills Training Competition, the government spent nearly £6 million on training for tradespeople delivering green home energy improvements. 5.4 The Net Zero Strategy recognises the importance of the Civil Service having the right skills to deliver net zero. It sets out a series of measures – including a new training offer for all civil servants to be rolled out shortly. The recently published Declaration on Government Reform identifies reducing carbon emissions and other elements of net zero as a priority. Other measures include expanding training for Fast Streamers on net zero and embedding net zero in the standards for the Policy Profession, for the first time explicitly recognising that good policy making requires an understanding of the climate impacts of decisions. 5.5 Significant wider work is underway to improve Civil Service skills. An overhaul of Civil Service training was launched in January 2022 that will equip civil servants with the skills and knowledge to deliver the best possible public services, become less reliant on expensive external consultants, and build back stronger, fairer, safer and greener. The new Curriculum and Campus for Government Skills will transform training and development for civil servants from the core knowledge needed at the beginning of their career through to specialist training in areas such as economics, data usage, the physical sciences, and constitutional issues.