Energy & Utility Skills urges government to prioritise utilities as vanguard for net zero targets

Energy & Utility Skills chief executive, Phil Beach, has urged the government to give its sector “the highest priority in the short term” as the “the vanguard of delivering the net zero carbon targets set by government.”

Responding to the government’s recent publication of its Skills for Jobs White Paper, Beach (pictured) warned that for the government to realise its plan to build back greener and achieve net zero emissions by 2050, “it must focus on the immediate challenges of delivering skilled workers for the UK’s transition to net zero. It is imperative that this area receives.”

He called on the administration to “align its immediate skills priorities to the delivery of its ambitious targets for net zero and the climate emergency.” Beach said the White Paper was “another significant and welcome step towards providing a world-class post-16 education system in England.” And he welcomed too the government’s “ambition for a market-led system with closer links to employers.”

Beach highlighted the Workforce Renewal and Skills Strategy 2020-2025 unveiled by the Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership which claimed that the UK needed to fill 277,000 vacancies in the sector over the next decade.

“The provision of a properly funded and coherent system of technical education that meets the needs of both adults and young people is essential,” Beach said adding: “The sector’s demand for a skilled workforce is immediate.”