The clean energy sector in Wales is forecast to require 15,000 more jobs over the next five years claims the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ Government. It comes as it has published a plan to support the required recruitment drive.
The Westminster government has identified 31 priority occupations for the sector - which includes hydrogen, renewables and nuclear - with plumbers, electricians, and welders particularly in demand.
Across the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ clean energy employment is expected to double to 860,000 by 2030.
The Hynet CCUS (carbon capture, usage and storage) project will support jobs in North Wales, Cheshire and Flintshire, and is projected to create 2,800 direct jobs. The Mona Offshore Wind Farm off the coast of North Wales is also set to provide 3,500 jobs over its lifetime.
Key skills needed include trades such as electricians, bricklayers and plumbers as well as engineers and metal workers, with the largest clean energy employer expected to be in carbon capture as well as offshore wind.
Five new technical excellence colleges will help train young people into essential roles. As skills are devolved this will not seen one based in Wales. However, sills pilots in Pembrokeshire, alongside those in Cheshire and Lincolnshire, will be backed with £2.5m - which could go towards courses or career advisers.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “Wales is essential to the clean energy revolution that this government is delivering. Communities across Wales have long been calling out for a new generation of good industrial jobs. The clean energy jobs boom can answer that call - and today we publish a landmark national plan to make it happen.
“Our plans will help create an economy in which there is no need to leave your hometown just to find a decent job. Thanks to this government’s commitment to clean energy a generation of young people in our industrial heartlands can have well-paid secure jobs, from plumbers to electricians and welders. “
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Secretary of State for Wales Jo Stevens said: “Wales’s growing clean energy industry is delivering the well-paid, highly-skilled jobs of the future.
Projects right across the country from Pembrokeshire to Flintshire are creating opportunities for hundreds of our young people and will help drive regional growth as well as accelerating our drive towards lower bills and energy security.”
Welsh Government Minister for Skills, Jack Sargeant, said: “Our ambition is to ensure today’s young people will have the skills needed to work the jobs of tomorrow, helping us embed the industries and services of the future in our communities.
“With decades of industrial expertise Wales is primed to capitalise on the generational opportunity that is the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ’s clean energy revolution. The plan announced today will complement our net zero skills action Plan and support our journey to a cleaner, more prosperous Wales.”
Jobs in wind, nuclear, and electricity networks all advertise average salaries of over £50,000, compared to the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ average of £37,000, and are spread across coastal and post-industrial communities.
Russell Greenslade, director of CBI Wales “The growth of Wales’s clean energy economy is opening up real opportunities for people and communities right across the nation. The launch of the Clean Energy Jobs Plan provides a practical, forward-looking framework to connect local talent with both the opportunities emerging in this fast-developing sector and with the businesses driving delivery on the ground.
“Wales is already showing how workers, particularly those from traditional industries, can successfully transition into clean energy roles, drawing on our established strengths and deep industrial heritage. If we want people to feel genuinely invested in this transition and empowered to play their part, we must clearly show them where they fit in and how their skills and experience can contribute to Wales’s cleaner, stronger economic future.”
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Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, said: “After years of previous governments starving British industry of investment, this represents a serious plan to start to rebuild our industrial heartlands and deliver quality jobs in clean energy - as well as supporting even more in supply chains right across the country.
“Crucially, it puts decent work at the heart of our energy system. And it shows that when government makes a plan with unions and workers, the whole country can benefit.
“Whether it’s welders in Wrexham or pipefitters on Teesside, the firm commitment to clean energy jobs being good union jobs is one which will improve working lives the country over.
“We now look forward to government delivering a similarly robust and funded plan for the North Sea transition, which safeguards jobs and livelihoods.”