Preparing for an Unknown Future: The Net Zero Skills Challenge
Many of the sectors, industries, and jobs that will support the Net Zero transition do not yet exist. When we are so unsure of what our future skills needs will be, how can we prepare a skilled workforce ready to create the infrastructure of tomorrow? PoliticsHome sat down with experts from UKCRIC to learn more about the Net Zero skills challenge
Predicting future infrastructure requirements is a difficult task. The challenge of planning to ensure that we have the skills we need for a future low carbon economy is particularly difficult. This is because constructing a skills pipeline requires learning that begins well in advance of those skills reaching the labour market.
PoliticsHome recently sat down with two leading experts on skills for the Net Zero transition who are part of UKCRIC, a collaborative research body focused on infrastructure and cities. They told us that ensuring we have the skills that we need for a future low-carbon economy creates a unique set of challenges that require a system-wide response.
Dr Kathryn North is Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor, Climate Change and Net Zero at Loughborough University. She is also Head of Skills for the Energy Research Accelerator (ERA) and leads the skills programme for HyDEX which is supporting the development of the hydrogen industry in the Midlands.
North told PoliticsHome that ongoing uncertainty about the exact shape of our future infrastructure makes it difficult to predict the precise skills that will be required to build and maintain it.
“We don't know exactly what the Net Zero economy looks like,” she explained. “There's a little bit of crystal ball gazing at the moment to understand what the future might look like. For instance, we don't know what the energy mix is going to be in terms of different technologies.”
Professor Sergio Cavalaro is Professor of Infrastructure Systems and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation at Loughborough. He agrees with his colleague's analysis, describing current planning for future skills as “very much a guessing game.”
He told PoliticsHome that industry, academics, and policymakers need to accept that the situation will take some time to clarify. However, even without knowing the precise skills the future will demand, Cavalaro is certain of one thing. There is very likely to be a shortfall in skills that could slow the nation’s journey to Net Zero.
“There are estimates now, but I don't think we'll be able to have a real sense of the numbers needed within the next 5-10 years,” Cavalaro tells us. “We do know we will be fishing in a very limited pool of talent though and that pool is unlikely to be big enough.”
Both North and Cavalaro agree that instead of fixating on specifics, such as hydrogen versus electrification, policy instead needs to consider the wider systems that support skills development. That is the only way to ensure that the skills ecosystem is agile enough to respond to rapidly changing needs.
“Whenever you're trying to navigate uncertainty, flexibility is the area that you need to invest in the most,” Cavalaro tells us. “What sort of common needs will exist regardless of the specific technology? What are the skills that will be cross-cutting?”
The point is emphasised by North, who argues that too much of the current discussion focuses on trying to guess specific skills needs that we cannot possibly yet know. She urges policymakers, academics, and industry to instead focus on the sort of systemic changes that are already within their control.
“There are a lot of moving parts at the moment,” North tells us. “We need to be creative in the way that the whole system is set up. We don't know what the future holds. We've got to be agile.”
The systemic changes that North advocates may also address the historic lack of diversity within the built environment sector. That would lead to not just a more inclusive infrastructure sector but deliver better outcomes that fit the needs of society.
North anticipates that the need to expand the workforce is so great that the nation cannot afford to ignore groups that have not traditionally been attracted to careers in the built environment. That diversity, she argues, is not simply a matter of equity. It is an engine that can deliver better and more usable infrastructure.
“The more people who are represented in designing the solutions, the better it will be for the communities who are using those solutions,” she explains. “There are often different needs within society that have not always been met in the way that that infrastructure is designed.”
That need to engage across the whole of society is also seen as critical if effective solutions are to be implemented. To drive that engagement will require a new generation of professionals with a skill set that extends beyond the purely technical.
Alongside improved diversity of the workforce, Cavalaro also calls for a change in mindset that he believes can accelerate progress, particularly within a rapidly changing operating environment.
He would like to see future leaders in the built environment develop skills around creativity and leadership and also encouraged to adopt a less risk-averse approach which provides the freedom to experiment and sometimes fail.
“That inquisitive nature, that ability and freedom to make mistakes and explore solutions is really important,” he says. “If the mindset is always, ‘this has to be right first time’ then what you end up with probably won’t be the best solution. You end up with a half-good solution when you could have had a very good one.”
Creative, diverse, and agile future leaders able to embrace technologies that may not yet even exist will be at the heart of any successful approach that provides a workforce fit for the future. It is clear speaking to our UKCRIC experts that whilst this might seem like tomorrow’s challenge, the work to address it must begin today.
Read the C-DICE Roadmap, a recently published five-year plan for the advanced skills requirements for net zero by 2050.
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