Regional Clean Energy Skills Coordination and Action Planning

ECW, working with the North West Net Zero Hub, Net Zero North West, and a range of other organisations, is seeking to appoint an individual consultant or small group of consultants to build a regional approach to meeting the clean energy skills and labour gap across the North West, and in partnership with relevant neighbouring regions. The work is funded by DESNZ and the Office for Clean Energy Jobs. The consultants will need to identify one to two people who will be available to act as the regional Lead for an agreed number of days per week, for the length of the project. The Clean Energy Sector definition includes: Offshore Wind; Onshore Wind; Solar; Nuclear fusion; Nuclear fission; Smart Systems and Flexibility; Electricity Networks; Hydrogen; Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage; Greenhouse Gas Removals; Domestic & Non-Domestic Heat Pumps; Heat Networks; Biomethane; Energy Efficiency and Retrofit. Through our previous research we have identified the scale of the challenge in filling workforce requirements in the Clean Energy sector, including: • Demand for an estimated 39,000 workers in clean energy jobs by 2028/9 in the North West and North Wales (predicated on current understanding of the investment pipeline and modelled demand) • At least 16,000 new workers are needed in the next 4-5 years • Short, targeted, upskilling is also needed for the c.23,000 people in the current workforce to enable them to work in clean energy roles The consultant will engage senior and other stakeholders to develop an action plan which enables us to collectively meet this challenge, and to ensure that local people and the local supply chain benefit from the energy transition. The plan will identify funding partners and scope out mutually beneficial projects, enabling the consortia to secure new private and public sector investment into skills provision.