According to new research from Robert Gordon University (RGU), over 90 percent of the UK’s oil and gas workforce have medium to high skills transferability and are well-positioned to work in adjacent energy sectors like offshore wind, carbon capture utilisation and storage, and hydrogen.
Expected to increase from 20 percent to 65 percent of all jobs in the offshore energy sector, the review shows that around 200,000 skilled people are expected to be required in the UK offshore energy industry to ensure delivery in 2030.
“With the overall number of jobs in the UK oil and gas industry projected to decline over time, the degree of transferability of jobs to adjacent energy sectors such as offshore wind, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen or other industrial sectors will be key to ensuring the UK retains its world class skills and capabilities,” said Prof Paul de Leeuw, the review’s lead author.
The opportunities for the UK energy supply chain and for energy sector jobs are quite significant, with over $241 billion investment to be made in capital and operating activities in the UK offshore energy sector over the next decade.
As stated in the UK Offshore Energy Workforce Transferability Review by RGU, around 80 percent of the jobs in 2030 are predicted to be in nine key job families – operations, technicians, engineering, projects, commercial/business development/marketing, procurement/supply chain management, finance, HR, and HSE. Soft skills and other non-technical skills are generally highly transferable to adjacent energy sectors.
Paul de Leeuw added: “With many of the skills and competencies required for the offshore energy sector to be highly interchangeable, the energy transition offers a unique opportunity to create a new world-class net-zero energy workforce.
“There is a significant role for the higher education sector to play in ensuring the targets set out by governments and the industry are achieved and that the upskilling and reskilling of the workforce is delivered to meet the demands of the changing energy landscape”.
The RGU review urges governments to work together with the offshore energy industry and further and higher education sector to ensure the managed transition of skills and experience in a way that protects and sustains key UK energy jobs. The review also indicates that the impact of a reduced ambition, combined with lower activity level and accelerated decline in the oil and gas industry could reduce the offshore energy workforce requirements to fewer than 140,000 jobs by 2030.
