Updated: UK green sector already heavily reliant on foreign workers

The UK's low carbon industries are already facing a serious skills crisis and the situation is likely to worsen as the government pursues its high-profile Low Carbon Transition Plan, according to one of the UK's leading green recruitment specialists.

Acre Resources has today warned that the government's plan to create 1.2 million low-carbon jobs over the next decade will not be realised without a renewed focus on the development of a larger engineering skills base.

The company said the UK's low-carbon firms were already experiencing skills shortages, noting that its recent global survey of 1,000 climate change professionals revealed that 37 per cent of those working in the UK were not UK citizens.

"If you are looking to recruit people with technical skills, there is without a doubt a serious skills shortage across the board, and we are having to look further afield to fill vacancies," said Ben Cartland, associate at the company. "There is just not enough engineering talent coming through the education system."

He said that renewable energy firms seeking mechanical and electrical engineers were finding it hardest to fill vacancies, and were increasingly having to look overseas to find qualified recruits. "The majority of companies with those sorts of roles have to look to the EU or further afield," he said. " We advise most firms coming to us with technical vacancies that they are likely to have to sort out visas for foreign workers."

A recent study by the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) also confirmed that about half of its members are currently finding it difficult to fill vacancies. "There is definitely a skills shortage at the moment," admitted Fruzsina Kemenes, skills and education policy officer at the BWEA. "A lot of companies are having to look overseas to fill vacancies."

She added that the BWEA was attempting to address the problem and was currently working on the development of a new national apprenticeship programme for the industry that should help address the shortage in qualified technical staff.

Speaking at the launch of the Low Carbon Industrial Transition Plan earlier this month, energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband said the government was currently working on a number of measures intended to address potential low-carbon skills shortages and promised that new initiatives would be announced shortly.

However, experts agree the government will need to invest significantly more in low-carbon skills development if it is to stop the current shortage from worsening as demand for skilled workers increases.

"Our survey showed that the low-carbon sector in the US has about 20 per cent of workers from overseas, and the renewables sector is growing very rapidly," said Cartland. "That suggests you can address the skills issue if you have the right incentives and policies in place. It needs to start in the education system with a concerted effort to promote maths, science and the technical skills we will need."

Craig Bennett of the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change agreed there may be a need for a shift in educational focus in favour of low-carbon skills, but he argued that the biggest boost the government could give to skills development would be to create a larger market for green products and services.

"If you look at the skills shortage we have now, the bulk of the problem is with the type of practical skills that people are more likely to learn in the workplace than at university," he explained. "The reason we are having to employ people with technical skills from Denmark and Germany is that their government's provided a market for renewable technologies and that encourage firms to invest in skills development. If we have the demand for green goods and services in place then the skills will come."

A woman for the Department of Business, Skills and Innovation said that the government recognised that it had to take a more proactive role in ensuring the right green skills are developed across the economy, adding that new initiatives were in the pipeline.

"Government has a huge role - through public policies on taxation, regulation and expenditure, infrastructure, procurement and innovation - to influence the UK business environment, and help ensure we are meeting our nation's current and future skills needs," she said. "The Government takes the issue of green skills very seriously, as evidenced by its recent Low Carbon Industrial Strategy. [And] we will be publishing our national skills strategy later in the year."