ECA cautiously gives backing to UK Gov’s Clean Energy Jobs Plan

The Electrical Contractors Association has cautiously welcomed the UK Government’s proposed Clean Energy Jobs Plan, which we detailed yesterday. 

The plan is designed to set the UK’s clean energy industries onto a path of doubling its employee base by 2030, adding 400,000 jobs. The ECA, along with many other industry observers, are fully in support of that goal – although are urging ministers to engage more closely with the engineering services sector to ensure it can actually deliver. 

Andrew Eldred, Deputy CEO of ECA, noted, “It’s encouraging to see plumbers, HVAC engineers, and electricians acknowledged in the Clean Energy Jobs Plan as priority occupations where a major boost to recruitment and training is now required.

“However, ECA is concerned that the Plan has very little to say about how that is going to happen. To date, there has been no sustained UK Government strategic engagement with the engineering services organisations which will be primarily responsible for training and employing this workforce.”

This is a common problem cited by the ECA before. While having a goal is all well and good, the industry needs a pipeline of future talent so that it can actually recruit for the roles that are needed. In its most recent survey, the ECA found that recruitment was still a challenge for firms in the engineering services sector. 

That’s the issue that the ECA has taken with this particular plan from the UK Government. It says that so far, the plan means firms will shoulder much of the recruitment and training effort. It called for structured coordination between government and industry to make it happen more seamlessly. 

Eldred added, “ECA hopes to work more closely from now on with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Department for Education, the Department for Work and Pensions, and Skills England to grow a domestic engineering services workforce trained to industry standards and equipped to deliver an efficient and safe clean energy transition.”