‘Skills passport’: How the UK is helping oil and gas workers switch to green energy careers

Winds of change are blowing across the UK, as it embarks on an energy transition that is both good for the economy and essential to curbing climate change.

But as homegrown wind and solar take over from fossil fuels, it's important that workers aren’t left behind.

To that end, the UK and Scottish governments have launched a ‘skills passport’ to help oil and gas workers transfer into clean energy jobs. 

The UK’s Labour government has also announced regional skills investments worth almost £4 million (€4.7m) to help people make the move in four key regions.

“Unlike the failed approach of previous governments, we won’t sit back and let good jobs go overseas instead of coming to our shores,” Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said in a statement last week.

“We are working with communities, businesses, and trade unions to train workers here in Britain, so we can seize the opportunities that clean power brings.”

How does the UK’s new skills passport work?

Oil and gas workers will be able to access the skills passport online. It’s a digital tool to help them identify routes into offshore wind - including construction, maintenance and operation roles. 

The passport will show where existing qualifications are recognised. Research from Offshore Energies UK estimates that 90 per cent of oil and gas workers have skills that are relevant to the clean energy transition, so there should be plenty of opportunities.

Supported by £3.7 million (€4.3m) of Scottish Government ‘Just Transition’ funding, the energy skills passport is set to be expanded later this year to point out other pathways into renewables. 

“This passport is all about helping people working in this industry to make informed decisions about their jobs and future,” says Offshore Energy UK’s director of supply chain and people, Katy Heidenreich. Oil and gas will still be needed in the UK “for decades to come,” she claims.

UK industrial heartlands get green jobs funding too

As part of its plan to make Britain a ‘clean energy superpower’ - generating at least 95 per cent of its power from low carbon sources by 2030 - the government is also rolling out regional skills investments.

Aberdeen, Cheshire, Lincolnshire and Pembrokeshire will each receive around £1 million (€1.2m) of funding for relevant projects from the Office for Clean Energy Jobs, which sits within the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

They have all been identified as key growth regions for clean energy, with flourishing offshore wind, solar and nuclear industries, the government says.

Funding could go towards new training centres, courses or career advisers - supporting local people to get jobs in welding, electrical engineering, and construction, for example. Local partners will decide how the money can be best spent to equip their workforce.

Cheshire West and Chester, North and North East Lincolnshire and Pembrokeshire will benefit first, the government explains, as significant work to identify skills has already been done for Aberdeen.

“This is excellent news for Pembrokeshire and the surrounding area,” says Rebecca Evans, Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning.

“There is huge potential for economic growth in Wales, fuelled by clean energy technology like floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea,” adds Secretary of State for Wales Jo Stevens.

In Cheshire, funding is likely to train more people for the area’s nuclear fuel cluster.

Does the UK government’s upskilling effort go far enough?

Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, National Officer at Britain’s general trade union (GMB), described the initiatives as a “welcome first step”. 

But union leaders are wary too, pushing for further investment from the government. The skills passport has been three years in the making and was originally meant to launch in 2023.

"We know our oil and gas workers have transferable skills and experience that are vital across the energy sector,” Roz Foyer, General Secretary of Scotland’s Trade Union Centre (STUC), told Scottish tabloid the Daily Record. “It’s correct that government have recognised this, and the skills passport will provide an important platform to build on.” 

“But this cannot be the end if we are to realise a just transition.”

The net-zero transition could, if managed well, result in up to 725,000 new net jobs in low-carbon sectors by 2030 compared to 2019, according to independent government advisor, the Climate Change Committee.

There are many more jobs to be filled outside of energy generation, such as retrofitting buildings, low-carbon heating installation and the manufacture of electric vehicles, it notes.