Future Skills 2010

The energy world is changing – the UK has seen an already substantial wind energy industry emerge over the last decade (at least for turbine installation and connection), and an industry to invent, develop, test, install and monitor marine energy devices has sprung up from nowhere in even less time. Activity around new-technology micro-scale power generation is increasing, encouraged by new and generous funding arrangements, and there is more attention than ever on the energy used in buildings, through energy certificates. We may or may not be about to start building nuclear power stations again, and our larger power companies are developing a completely new technology to capture and then store permanently the carbon dioxide emitted from its generating stations. We are headed towards low carbon waters.

Meanwhile, some of the more traditional energy industry sectors have a distinctly aged workforce and there is much concern about how to replace the expertise embodied in those about to retire.

That’s a lot of change – some already achieved, plenty more to arrive. Changes in technology are well-documented, not least within the pages of Energy World and Petroleum Review magazines, but is the training and skills infrastructure keeping up? The Energy Institute (EI) has published this, the second annual supplement to its two monthly magazines, to focus on just these people issues: skills, training, careers, professionalism.

In this edition, the EI’s own Sarah Beacock focuses on the growing demand for low carbon skills, both in the UK and further afield, and how the EI can help today’s energy professional prepare for the energy future. Turn to page 2.

The supplement also looks at recent activity from the four UK Sector Skills Councils responsible for the various facets of the energy industry (pages 6–8), the benefit of a local workforce for international oil companies (page 9), and the importance of retaining knowledge and expertise from those about to retire (page 11). Finally, we feature two facilities dedicated to the teaching and demonstration of low carbon energy in quite different locations – CEREB in central London (page 16) and the Centre for Alternative Technology in rural Wales (page 19).