Page 16 - Carmarthenshire Skills Report 2024

Net Zero Skills
All LMI Data: Lightcast™
. 2024
Construction and Electrical trades will be at the
heart of the energy transformation, and will be
required across multiple sectors, including but not
limited to:
Construction - Homes as Power Stations, Retrofit,
FLOW
Transportation – EV, charging points, EV vehicle
technicians
Energy – Renewables, FLOW
Agriculture – Emissions capture, automation
systems, renewable energy, machinery
When looking at these trades in the county, we
see there are some concerns:
Figure 1 details jobs in Construction and Electrical
in Carmarthenshire. From 2011 to 2019 there was
a healthy workforce within these trades across the
county (similar to national average) however, since
2019, there has been a 11.5% decline in these
roles. The decline can be pinpointed but not
limited to a few key roles particularly in residential
construction:
• Electrical Installation -67%
• Plumbing -71%
• Residential building -58%
(Figure 2) details the job posting advertised salary
trend for the same occupations over the last 12
months. The county has seen a 42% increase in
advertised wage, there were 730 job adverts listed
in 2023, this could indicate that employers are
looking for high quality pre-skilled candidates and
are willing to offer good salary packages or that
employers are struggling to recruit / upskill.
With construction being at the heart of the energy
and Net Zero transition. The challenge now is to
ensure the existing roles are upskilled in new Net
Zero technology and Trust Mark competences.
The main concern being the decline in roles that
will become urgently required for Domestic
Retrofit, Electric Vehicle Charging, Solar Installation
etc.
Employers from this sector urgently require on job
competence based short modular upskill courses
to enable the transition of skill competence.
However, employers need to also start planning
ahead and embedding these new skills into their
operations as soon as possible, this is proving
difficult given the drop in workforce numbers and
full order books, preventing release of staff for
training.
Construction & Electrical Trades roles trend -
Carmarthenshire
Electrical & Construction
Figure 1:
Construction & Electrical Trades advertised salary
trend - Carmarthenshire
The drop in these roles across the county could
be because of less demand for these types of
roles. However, looking at near future
requirements and the recent spike in advertised
wages in job postings for these roles, it is safe
to assume that electrical and construction
trades will be in high demand, albeit the
competences of these roles may evolve more
towards sustainable systems.
Additionally, new competencies are required
for retrofit assessment, this is a huge gap
currently that urgently requires filling.`
16
“There were just 60,000 heat pumps installed in
the UK last year, making it one of the slowest
adopters of this new technology in Europe.
At current rates of installation, it will take more
than 400 years before every British home has a
heat pump.
The UK only has 4,000 trained heat-pump
installers - it is estimated we will need 27,000 by
2028”
The heat pump installer gap | Nesta
Figure 2: