Skills are the talk of the town in Brussels as institutions, manufacturers, utilities, and all players involved in the energy sector have come to realise that skills and workforce shortages are looming (if not already present!). This has materialised with the EU announcing that 2023 will be its Year of Skills. Additionally, the annual EU Sustainable Energy Week, a week full of (policy) events around energy organised by the Commission’s energy directorate, has also announced skills would be one its focus areas for this year’s edition.
While skills are a transversal issue affecting many sub-sectors in energy, e-mobility is a space where this need is particularly salient. Not only is this industry seeing steep growth figures but it is poised to go even faster and further as plans to decarbonise the transport sector call for a step change in the drivetrain of new cars. On top of that, EVs (and their charging infrastructure) are relatively new technologies calling for skills that are not yet as mainstream as they should be in the relevant workforce.
However, similar to many other sub-sectors in the energy transition, the opportunities for Europe are huge. With charging infrastructure alone, EuropeOn estimated back in 2018 that over 112.000 local jobs could be created by 2030 in our sector across Europe, a conservative figure based on pre-Green Deal targets. When it comes to the whole automotive sector, a study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, on behalf of the Platform for Electro-mobility (of which EuropeOn is a member), shows that employment figures would remain stable by the end of the decade. In addition to employment gains, Europe could rid its trade balance from costly fossil fuel imports and gain more energy sovereignty.
EuropeOn will take the floor at a EUSEW event coordinated by the Platform for Electro-mobility on the specific topic of skills in the e-mobility industry to share the electrical contractors’ take on this question and our policy recommendations for EU policymakers.
An unmissable and timely event that is open to all, both in Brussels and online!
Make sure to register here: https://interactive.eusew.eu/eusew-2023/sessions/dcabf38e-b4c1-42fe-b0d3-d30896c49861
