Offshore wind projects set to create thousands of jobs

by PM Online - 04/03/2010

"Thousands of jobs set to be created by the growth of the UK’s offshore wind industry could go overseas if the opportunity to boost skills is not taken now, experts have warned.
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Yesterday Iberdrola, a Spanish energy firm, chose Glasgow as its base to build the turbines for offshore wind farms, creating up to 100 jobs. This follows three other job-creation projects in the sector announced within the past six months, including two potential manufacturing plants in Wales and Teesside, and 200 jobs at a new research and development site to be developed by Mitsubishi.

Maria McCaffery, chief executive of Renewables UK, which represents the wind and tidal energy sectors, told PM she was optimistic that these projects and massive job creation would go ahead. She said offshore wind energy could create the next industrial jobs boom in the UK. But for UK workers to benefit, upskilling existing and future workers must be a priority, she said.

“Make no mistake, part three offshore wind is going to happen, it’s so big and bold, there’s so much interest and the Crown Estate has allocated the sites,” said McCaffery. “I don’t want UK plc looking on in horrified disbelief, complaining in 10 years' time that it’s all been delivered by an overseas-based workforce.

“This employment opportunity offers tremendous growth from where we currently stand, which is about 5,000 [UK workers] employed in renewable energy at the moment. We are looking at taking that to between 45,000 and 60,000.”

She said it was “not an exaggeration” to compare the potential of offshore wind to create jobs with the number created when gas was discovered in the North Sea more than 40 years ago.

Transferable skills already exist among UK engineers and other offshore workers and McCaffery said it could “extend the professional life of people in the energy sector” if they move to a different part of the sector.

But the big challenge is to prepare the technological skills base the sector will need in five to seven years' time. McCaffery warned that a lack of physics teachers in schools could mean the UK doesn’t have enough qualified electrical engineers in the future to work in offshore wind. “My biggest fear is that most of our electrical engineers are going to be speaking to us with German or Danish accents.”

A tried and tested method for upskilling already exists. McCaffery pointed to the oil and gas industries, which established their own academy, OPITO, to do this.

More Details: http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2010/03/offshore-wind-projects-set-to-create-thousands-of-jobs.htm