Page 18 - Pembrokeshire Skills Report 2024

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This sector needs to be thought of in terms of a
new market that requires skills that slot into all
levels of that new market, currently only 0.5% of
Pembrokeshire residents work in this sector. This is
likely to grow over the next few years.
The concern is skills demands in this sector will be
filled at the expense of other sectors like
Construction, Manufacturing, Finance and
Professional and of course Digital who are all
facing their own current skill challenges. In a 2022
report by Marine Energy Wales, they claim the
current employment breakdown is:
• 35% Construction and Fabrication
• 12% Project Service
• 25% Technical
• 11% Business development
• 12% Design
• 6% Operations & Maintenance
With the recent award of Freeport status and plans
for manufacturing and shipping of floating wind
turbines in NPT, Pembrokeshire will be competing
for similar skills with surrounding counties and
must be pre prepared for this emerging skill
demand.
The labour market shortages that are present in
Pembrokeshire for these skills are also present in
all parts of Wales.
National Grid Estimate that the total new roles that
will need recruiting for is up to 400,000 by 2050,
split by new roles and replacement of current roles
to fill retirement gaps. Up to 25,000 new roles to
recruit for in Wales.
Building the net zero energy workforce | National Grid
Group
download (nationalgrid.com)
For Floating Offshore Wind (FOW) It is forecast that
by 2030 there will be 104,401 jobs in offshore wind
in the UK to deliver the current pipeline, assuming
that all projects are successful. However,
increasing the target to 60GW by 2030 which, if
possible, with the constraints of volumes of raw
materials, network connections, and marine
capability, would likely require a workforce nearing
120,000.
OWIC Offshore Wind Skills Intelligence Report - March
2022
Hydrogen generation, carbon capture &
distribution, solar and on shore wind will also
require more skilled workers.
Simply put- the challenge is growing whilst the
time to achieve it is reducing.
Energy
There are several skills gaps and shortages which
need to be addressed across the industry, including
those persisting in the same areas as previous
years:
• High level electrical skills, including Senior
Authorised Persons;
• Digital skills e.g., data analysts/scientists etc
and engineers with an understanding of data
analysis and presentation;
• Consenting skills, particularly amongst SNCBs
and regulators but increasingly within the
industry,
• Marine & Port orientated skills
Over the longer-term, anticipated skills shortages
include:
• Electrical technical, Construction and
engineering skills (substations, HV and cables).
These will be exacerbated by the upgrading of
the power network and the introduction of
battery storage sites
• Project Management and the ability to
manage significant sized projects and multiple
contractors
• High level digital specialisms data analytics,
artificial intelligence, robotics, digital
engineering/science, machine learning, SCADA
related skills, software development
Figure 1:
The workforce in offshore wind is growing (see
Figure 1); however, the forecast of employment
required in 2030 (shown in red) is growing at a
quicker pace than the current workforce growth
(shown in blue). This is due to increases in the
planning pipeline and Government targets (from
30GW in 2019, 40GW in 2021, to the current
50GW target in 2022).