Do we have the skills required to hit offshore wind goals? - Ashley Fleming

One of Labour’s key manifesto pledges was to turn Britain into a clean energy superpower, with a quadrupling of offshore wind output being a key contributor to that ambition. Underpinning this pledge is to effectively remove fossil fuels by 2030. If achieved, this will also go a long way to achieving the Scottish Government’s 2045 net zero goals.

There are big plans afoot to create the policies needed to deliver on these goals, and international investors already looking at Scotland as a good place to invest, particularly now that the two new Green Freeports (Inverness & Cromarty Firth Green Freeport and Forth Green Freeport) are “open for business”. However, there are some obvious and immediate questions to answer when we ask whether we have the people and the skills that we will need.

The growth in offshore wind presents economic opportunities and job creation for the whole of Scotland and the local communities which will serve the sector, but there is an immediate demand for a skilled workforce in areas such as engineering, project management, data analysis, and environmental science.

Ashley Fleming is a Partner and head of the immigration team at Harper Macleod

Utilising the existing skills from the oil and gas sector is a realistic option, and the new Energy Skills Passport will be important here, but so will upskilling from other sectors and investing in the next generation. Organisations such as Scottish Renewables and the Green Freeports’ partners will have a big part to play here.

The use of international workers will also go a long way to address the critical skills gap, but the current immigration policies don’t make it easy for Scottish companies, or international companies with a Scottish presence, to always go down that route.

Changes by the outgoing UK Government in terms of salary levels to bring down net migration have made it harder for companies to recruit from overseas and the announcement recently by the Prime Minister – that the UK Government won’t devolve migration policy to the Scottish Government – wasn’t necessarily unexpected.

However, it is welcoming to see that the Migration Advisory Committee, commissioned by the Home Secretary, is looking at some regional variations, particularly within the engineering sector – assuming that these variations are balanced against the risk of undercutting the wages or opportunities for British workers. The MAC will report its findings by May 2025, which should give us a direction of travel for future policy changes.

When you couple that with Labour’s promise to dramatically increase long-term international investment, it’s clear that upskilling or reskilling our existing and emerging workforce will need to be supported by an immigration policy which makes it easier for companies to recruit from overseas. As well as looking at the financial incentives and planning system, international investors will assess whether they can actually recruit the skills and talent they need.

This topic was covered in more detail in a discussion with Claire Mack, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, as part of Harper Macleod’s Marine Economy Week which took place last week. You can catch up on the discussion at www.harpermacleod.co.uk/events/marine-economy-week/ alongside the other insights covering Green Freeports, marine infrastructure and offshore wind.

Ashley Fleming is a Partner and head of the immigration team at Harper Macleod