The Energy Transition is Moving Faster Than our Skills System

The UK has learned – sometimes the hard way – that economic stability and energy security are deeply connected. What we’re less comfortable admitting is that both depend just as heavily on something more prosaic: skills. 

The government’s Clean Energy Jobs Plan 2025 rightly sets out the scale of ambition required, describing the shift ahead as one of the largest labour‑market transitions in our history. The framing is important. This is not a marginal adjustment or a niche opportunity; it is a structural change to how we power our economy and employ our people. And structural change only works if the workforce can move with it. 

Career pathways are opaque 

What too often gets in the way is coherence. One of the strongest themes to emerge from recent discussions with policymakers and industry – including at this week’s New Statesman Energy and Climate Conference – is that national skills policy doesn’t yet gel together in practice. People do not have a clear line of sight from where they are now to where clean energy jobs could take them. Career pathways are opaque and upskilling routes are difficult to navigate for many. 

That lack of clarity has real consequences. The skills gap in green energy is well known, but the conversation often stops at headline shortages. The more difficult truth is that, in the short term, clean energy roles still struggle to compete for experienced, highly skilled workers. Too many are perceived as uncertain, overly fragmented, or too closely tied to short‑term policy cycles rather than sustained demand. These perceptions matter, because without redeploying existing expertise at scale, the transition will inevitably slow. 

As a leader in green skills, NOCN Group sees clearly what makes these roles genuinely attractive. Workers need certainty. They need clear expectations of competence, clear progression routes, and clear recognition of prior experience. Engineers, technicians and project managers will not retrain unless they understand where it leads, how long it will take, and whether the qualification they gain will be recognised across the sector. 

We cannot meet future demand simply by moving people around

At the same time, we cannot meet future demand simply by moving people around. We need to widen the pipeline – and that means confronting a persistent disconnect in the system. We have significant skills gaps alongside a growing NEET challenge, yet training provision is still not consistently aligned with real jobs embedded in communities.  

Local Level

However, this is where some of the most encouraging progress is happening: at a local level. In contrast to national frameworks that struggle to reflect lived reality, local initiatives are often better placed to understand community needs, align provision with local employers, and link learning directly to work. When delivery is rooted locally, it becomes more practical, more inclusive and more responsive. 

Examples shared during the New Statesman panel illustrated this clearly. For example, we are working with Burnley College to offer flexible provision – including weekend courses – enabling people to train around work, caring responsibilities and other constraints. These are not radical policy shifts, but they make the difference between exclusion and participation. They also demonstrate why timing matters. Building skills capacity takes time, and we need to be honest about that. Long‑term strategy, rather than repeated short‑term adjustment, is essential if momentum is to be sustained. 

Delivery depends on an ecosystem that can respond quickly to employer needs

The panel discussions reinforced a wider truth: while government sets the direction of travel, delivery depends on an ecosystem that can respond quickly to employer needs. Yet skills frameworks often lag behind industry reality. Qualifications can take too long to develop or fail to reflect the complexity of real roles. Employers, meanwhile, face immediate shortages and have limited capacity to engage deeply with training systems that feel remote or slow. 

Bridging that gap requires action beyond central government. The private sector must play a more active role – not only as a consumer of skills, but as a co‑architect of the system. That means working collaboratively to define standards, supporting modular and flexible learning, and valuing competence and experience alongside formal education. It also means recognising that skills policy is economic policy, and that local delivery is often where national ambition becomes tangible. 

Recent conversations across policy, economics and industry have sharpened these conclusions. Clean energy ambitions and economic resilience are inseparable. But neither will be delivered unless skills infrastructure is treated with the same seriousness as physical investment – and unless we build on the progress already being made on the ground. 

This transition will define the next generation of jobs. There is real momentum emerging through local initiatives and partnerships. The task now is to grow from there: to connect local success to national strategy, and to ensure that clean energy jobs are not just aspirational, but credible, accessible and sustainable for everyone. 

By Graham Hasting-Evans, Chief Executive of NOCN Group