Day 5: “A Working Week to Solve the Wind Energy Talent Shortage”

This week Clare Buxton has been looking at how to manage the talent shortage in the Wind Energy sector, whether you’re hiring or looking to be hired. Sadly, we’ve come to the end of this series, so here’s a quick summary of the points we’ve covered.

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In Summary: Problem Solved?

Well, probably not quite solved, but certainly identified. And we’ve made a few suggestions along the way as to how to overcome the talent shortage, if you’re an employer, and make the most of your skills, if you’re an industry professional.

There’s a wealth of opportunity out there, and currently more growth than the current talent pool can deal with. It’s a great time to be in the industry if you’re already established, but also if you’re up and coming. New projects and new development exercises will make room for new players, onshore, offshore, residential and merchant based. Not a week goes by when we don’t here about new wind projects being granted consents and permission, and further investment going into the sector. Just last week we read this article talking about massive investment and cooperation between E.ON and Siemens.

We’re not the only ones who have recently commented on this challenge. Michael Liebreich, the chairman and chief executive of New Energy Finance was recently quoted in Renewable Energy World (May-June 2008), saying “There is strong momentum behind the growth of clean energy worldwide, with new investment up nearly fivefold between 2004 and 2007, but this is creating shortages not just of components such as silicon and transport infrastructure, but also of human capital.”

I hope these thoughts have given you something to think about as we all try to move forward and tackle the talent shortage in the wind energy sector. Perhaps the ideas and suggestions we’ve made will give you at least one new thing to try to help you deal with the situation. So, let the wind in to your sails, and let’s make some energy!

Follow Clare on twitter so that you always know what’s blowing in the wind energy space: http://twitter.com/CEBUX

We would love to hear your thoughts on this series so please feel free to leave comments.