Plans to rapidly decarbonise the Scottish economy could be undermined by skills shortages and growing competition, MSPs were told yesterday.
The warnings from business leaders came after the SNP/Green coalition government committed to providing additional renewable generation and accelerating the move from oil and gas as part of its new energy strategy.
That plan includes the creation of tens of thousands of jobs in low-carbon industries.
The Times says members of Holyrood’s economy and fair-work committee were told companies in the renewables sphere were struggling to find enough skilled workers to fulfil growth plans.
Jonny Clark, the managing director of ITPEnergised, an environmental and engineering consultancy, said his company was taking 17 weeks to fill vacancies.
“A big challenge for us is accessing (the) talent pool,” he said. “We just cannot get enough people. It is a relatively shallow pool we are all fishing in, and it is a global market.”
Struggling
Claire Mack, chief executive of the trade body Scottish Renewables, said many in the industry were struggling to recruit staff and often had to provide further training.
She suggested that the situation might improve as more graduates came through alongside a strong vocational training push across the sector.
“The skills shortages are there but we are starting to gear up,” she said.
The committee was also told how a range of large-scale projects, including parts of the ScotWind leasing round for offshore wind farms, were expected to move into construction over the coming years, potentially bringing in billions of pounds of investment.
MSPs were told, however, that the short-term investment outlook was challenging and warned there was a need to ensure Scotland kept up with international peers.
Ms Mack raised the example of a company considering a project in Poland, where it would not have to pay any business rates for buildings that it intended to use.
Workers could leave
Mr Clark suggested workers could leave if more were not done to ensure Scotland retained its reputation.
“We need to make sure Scotland is and remains a centre of excellence,” he said. “Other parts of the world are catching up.”
- Officials have corrected a significant error in the energy strategy hours after it was published for suggesting that the target date to phase out new petrol and diesel cars and vans had been extended by two years.
The document published on Tuesday stated the date for the change to electric vehicles was now 2032.
However, senior officials across various public agencies were left scratching their heads because they had not been informed of such a major policy shift from 2030.
That resulted in a series of calls to the Scottish Government where it eventually emerged that the 2032 date was the result of a typing mistake.
The shift towards electric vehicles is gaining pace, with 2022 a record year for sales of purely electric vehicles in Scotland.
However, there remain concerns over the availability and reliability of the charging network, particularly as more and more electric vehicles hit the road.