Day 2: “A Working Week to Solve the Wind Energy Talent Shortage”

This week Clare Buxton is looking at how to manage the talent shortage in the Wind Energy sector, whether you’re hiring or looking to be hired. Yesterday we established that the shortage really does exist, but what’s causing it? 

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 So why is there a talent shortage in the industry? 

• Well, firstly it is a new industry, especially in our home territory, the UK.  Realistically we have 7 or 8 years of experience to draw upon. In other European countries – noticeably Denmark, Germany and Spain – and the USA there is slightly more maturity.  

• Secondly, the market is growing extremely quickly.  There are new positions being created every day. Every major organisation committed to becoming a leading player in this space is building and strengthening teams, launching new divisions, opening new offices, and requiring the man power to do so.

• Until very recently, the Renewable Energy industry has been a sector which has struggled to attract new talent from a compensation perspective, especially in comparison to it’s big dirty brother, Oil and Gas.  The oil and gas industry has a lot of transferable skills to offshore Wind and a plethora of talented engineers but they pay well and know how to retain staff.  Fair play to them, but it has traditionally made it harder for us to compete.

• Engineering in itself seems to be suffering a generational crisis.  Engineers are an aging breed.  New blood is starting to pump through, but there is a distinct gap in the middle. Where are all the engineers with 10 years or so experience?  (If that’s you, please let me know, you’re wanted!) 

The burning question, another one that EcoSearch hears frequently, is: 

“How do we overcome the talent shortage?”  

And I wish I had an easy answer.  Over the next two days I will be making a few suggestions.  Tune in tomorrow to find suggestions that will help you overcome the talent shortage if you represent a company looking to hire.  

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Day 1: “A Working Week to Solve the Wind Energy Talent Shortage”

Over the next five days Clare Buxton will be looking at how to manage the talent shortage in the Wind Energy sector, whether you’re hiring or looking to be hired.

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Is the Shortage Real? Yes!

My work activity is dedicated to identifying key individuals and emerging talent in the Wind Energy market. For the past 6 months the rapid growth of the industry has allowed me to focus my attention to the development of the Wind Energy sector, and since April I have barely come up for air! Day in and day out, I build relationships with these individuals to understand what makes them tick, and to understand what skill sets they possess and wish to develop; I help them to grow their career in a direction that benefits them, but that will also benefit the clients I work with – developers, consultancies and manufacturers – to achieve their goals as well. And ambitious goals, at that.

One thing is very clear: there genuinely is a talent shortage in the Wind Energy industry. The market is growing at 20-25% a year. One of the major wind turbine manufacturers told me that to retain their market share in 2020 their turbines would need to be generating 10 times as much energy. This increased activity will mean they need to hire 100s of executives and technical specialists (as well as more junior staff) over the next few years. This industry is massively incentivised by government targets, environmental and scientific debates, as well as a general excitement and buzz around the potential of developing a sustainable future.

But do we have the global skill-sets to keep up?

Are there enough qualified professionals to allow every company contributing to the wind energy sector to experience the growth they are planning for?

There is no shortage of recent graduates and seasoned professionals from other disciplines who want to get into the industry. We receive many unsolicited CVs and emails from MSc graduates and engineers, as well as business developers, from turbo-machinery or traditional power generation backgrounds, telecommunications and aerospace. There is nothing more attractive than a thriving and recession-proof industry. But the real difficulty that organisations in our space are facing is that they all believe they “need” experienced individuals who have been there and seen that, and know what to do when X scenario happens, or Y scenario occurs. The market is moving at such a pace that companies do not feel they have the time to train someone from scratch (however promising they may seem).

“We need them now and we need them ready to roll”

This is a phrase we are accustomed to hearing in the EcoSearch office! But why is there a talent shortage? Tomorrow we take a closer look…

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EcoSearch’s First 'Dot Green' Blog Post

Like many firsts this one has been avidly anticipated, but by who?

Those who knew it was coming of course! Those of us most acutely aware of this blog launch work in the EcoSearch office. We like to consider ourselves expert consultants in our various ‘green’ fields.

Take a moment to meet the team that will be regular contributors to the blog and find out their areas of expertise: 

Clare - Wind and Solar Energy

Debby – Green IT and Marine Renewables

Katharine  – Using Web2.0 to get your EcoJob

Mark – Sustainability and Climate Change Consulting

Steven – Carbon Markets & Low Carbon Technologies 

Guests – The people we meet every day working to make our world a cleaner place

Coming up over the next couple of weeks:

Our first posts will form a 5 day series discussing the talent shortage in the wind energy industry:

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

Clare Buxton, our resident expert, will take you through the issues step by step. Whether you are a company hiring or someone already working in the industry looking to be hired, you will find something here to help. The series begins on Monday 15^th September.

Stay tuned for more exciting and helpful content from our other industry experts.

We look forward to receiving your comments. Don’t forget to subscribe via RSS using the buttons on the right and get EcoPosts hot off the press.