#Skills4Climate

The future needs electrical contractors

The energy and digital transitions call for electrification, renewables, e-mobility, energy management, and so on… but who will do the work? 
Skilled professionals, especially electrical contractors, are required to handle the safe and efficient installation of electrified solutions and follow-up with service and maintenance.

While Europe is leading the way for a sustainable future, electrical contracting businesses are already experiencing a shortage of both overall and skilled workforce. In Germany alone, companies are struggling to recruit as of now 96.000 electrical contractors, amounting to over 1/6th of the sector, and in France, over 20.000 talents are “wanted”. We can find similar situations across Europe.

Now that the European Green Deal’s implementation is starting and should unleash countless benefits for society and the economy, it is paramount that we all – businesses, workers and policymakers – tackle a key enabler: human capital!

2019

EuropeOn launches the #Skills4Climate campaign

We took the lead in our value chain to raise decisionmakers’ attention on the need to intertwine skills and climate policies. We rallied up to 18 European organisations behind this message, presented our key asks to EU policymakers working on the Green Deal, participated in numerous conferences and joined the Commission’s Pact for Skills.

2023

EU Year of Skills

As more and more public and private stakeholders are becoming aware of the challenge, skills are now high on the EU’s policy agenda. In that context, 2023 was coined as the EU Year of Skills. EuropeOn steered the publication of a Skills Brief by the Electrification Alliance.

Today

The most pressing challenge is the workforce challenge

At a time where unemployment is at a record low and the baby boomer generation is retiring, developing new skilling programmes for the green transition without addressing the dire lack of candidates is counter-effective. We must collectively work at the roots of the problem: technical education and careers are systematically devalued.

A comprehensive technical education is also crucial for everyone’s safety. For instance, half of accidental domestic fires have an electrical source. Thus, we need fully qualified professionals to install and integrate electrical systems in our homes and all types of buildings and infrastructures.

EuropeOn believes investing in long-term training and in our education system is crucial. We cannot stress this point enough since short training becomes a widespread approach to deal with the lack of workers. The electrical contracting sector is ready to offer potential employees long-term prospects, not a quick fix.

That said, how can our sector attract new people?

First, we must challenge the poor image of technical education and careers, often considered less prestigious than “white-collar” pathways. Additionally, we should find new ways to make our sector more appealing, especially for young people and women, with engaging communication campaigns and more funds for technical schools and teachers, for example. In this spirit, EuropeOn started a new working group on “Skills and attractiveness” in early 2021.

In May 2024, we released two new reports to inform policymakers’ work on tackling skills and workforce shortages while transposing Green Deal legislations: one on attractiveness campaigns and one on assessing workforce gaps.

Future

Our plans for 2024's #Skills4Climate

  • Putting the skills & workforce challenge at the top of the new Parliament and Commission’s priorities –> check our 2024 manifesto and the letter we sent with 18 co-signatories to President von der Leyen
  • Assisting EU and national policymakers in the implementation of the new skills & labour provisions deriving from the Green Deal
  • Circulating best practice with the support of our Skills & Attractiveness working group
  • Disseminating the results of our Erasmus+ project “EQF-elec” which aims to define a voluntary European qualification framework for electricians

Technical Challenge

The energy and digital transitions require the quick rollout of clean technologies, a large workforce and a dynamic re-skilling.

Massive investments in equipment and technologies for the energy transition can be useless if no one is there to install them. Therefore, we ask competent authorities for a deeper look into the availability of the workforce and the scale and types of investments it needs.

In Practice:

E-mobility: + 112.500 jobs by 2030

Solar: + 270.500 jobs by 2030

Workforce
Challenge

Electrical contractors have already reported difficulties with recruiting and numerous vacancies, and the energy transition is exacerbating these challenges. Additionally, digitalization and rapidly evolving technologies mean new required skills for electrical contractors.

The need to up-skill and the shortage of professionals bring about tremendous opportunities. However, our sector cannot address them on its own. The employment and education policy requirements call for swift and coordinated EU and national actions.

In Practice:

In Germany, 60% of electrical contractors have vacancies.

In Sweden, installation companies are seeking to hire an estimated 28.000 workers in the next 5 years.

In the UK, electrical contractors will need 15.000 new apprentices, in addition to regular market intake, to cover the needs of the next 5 years.

 

RESOURCE HUB

We gathered all our available resources on our Skills4Climate campaign here, for your convenience. 

Intertwine Climate and skills

The first step in facing these challenges is to recognise that they are both interlinked. Skills and employment should be embedded in climate strategies and understood as a potential barrier to their implementation. There should be provisions to support skill needs according to the planned rollout of clean technologies as well as for their operation and maintenance, which can last in the decades and require more extensive planning. The availability of the workforce in sufficient numbers has to be taken into account as well, if the installations are to meet safety and quality standards.

  • Make skills a priority in the European Green Deal, the upcoming Climate Law and in the Clean Energy Industrial Competitiveness and Innovation Strategy
  • Prioritize green jobs in employment-related funding such as ESF+

When considering the path leading to the required jobs and skills for the energy transition, a healthy relationship between employers and education authorities is the missing link to reach the benchmark set by landmark systems such as in Switzerland. Actors from industry and the private sector are allowed and invited to contribute to education programmes to convey the needs of the labour market and make sure students are well prepared to face the challenges ahead. National governments should leverage on sectoral organisations’ expertise on labour market requirements for better skills anticipation and matching. Including them at the earliest stages will allow for a dynamic adaptation of education programmes to face the challenge of fast-evolving technologies.

  • Involve private sector organisation at the earliest stage
  • Ensure the dynamic adaptation of education and training for skill anticipation and matching
  • Provide funding for skills anticipation and matching initiatives

Strengthen Public-Private Partner
ships

Incentivize Technical Education

One of the major hurdles in addressing the workforce challenge is the unflattering image from which the relevant education paths suffer. Technical and professional education are often seen as being a lower tier compared to the general education, affecting how students (and parents) perceive it, but also teachers, who might be disincentivised to work in technical schools, leading to a poorer quality of education. This misconception should be addressed by raising awareness about the job opportunities and needed skill that follow. Jobs in the electro-technical sector are green, growing and resilient and offer bright career prospects, especially in the countries where this education is valued. Additionally, education systems should be reformed to avoid “lock-in” effects and introduce more flexibility and mobility between education types as well as better access to tertiary education.

  • Ensure parity of esteem between all types of education
  • Provide high quality teachers for technical schools
  • Reform education systems for more flexibility, mobility and access to tertiary education

Our world is continuously evolving at a pace that is unparalleled, fuelled by the digital transformation, and it is up to our decision-makers to ensure that our children will be able to keep up. Dual education needs to become a central feature of our education systems if they are to be dynamic enough for the world of tomorrow. Through work placements, students have a better chance to gain the most modern knowledge and skills and can still receive the necessary theory in regular classes. Apprenticeships are already a cornerstone of the path towards the electro-technical sector but still need to be incentivized to reach their full potential, in terms of quality and quantity. Dual education and apprenticeship systems should also be designed to benefit from more flexibility regarding their outcomes and possibly lead to tertiary education.

  • EU should provide funding to secure sufficient placements in relevant labour markets
  • Education reforms should value dual education and allow for it to lead to tertiary education
  • Draw on the Swiss model, where dual education is central in the educational system and employment levels are exceptional

Incentivize Apprentice-ships

Incentivize Re- and Up- Skilling

The digital transformation is not limited to the future of the workforce but is already affecting our current, ageing, professionals. The need for up-skilling has never been so pressing as the energy transition calls for modern skills that were not available over 20 years ago. Additionally, workers from other sectors, especially fossil industries, should be supported in their career transitions with quality re-skilling programmes. Training programmes, particularly for re-skilling, are too often addressed only to job seekers, meaning that employed workers need to first quit their job in order to be able to transition to a green job.

  • EU should provide funds for training programmes for green jobs
  • With the support of the EU, governments should incentivize businesses to invest in human capital not just equipment, keeping in mind SMEs need support most of all
  • Support career transitions, not only for job seekers and particularly for fossil industry workers (such as from coal regions).

Skills4Climate is a shared concern and opportunity:

Kristian Ruby, Secretary General, Eurelectric: 

“Change starts with people. Moving on to carbon-neutrality, electricity companies need a broad set of new skills to accelerate the deployment of renewables, update distribution grids, digitalise and speed up the electrification of transport, housing and industry. Today, the skills gap is a real issue and Europe risks lacking hundreds of thousands of competent workers by 2030. It is crucial that Europe invests in ensuring the development of future-oriented skills and qualifications to deliver on its climate objectives.“

Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO, SolarPower Europe: 

“With solar booming in Europe and projections putting our technology on a rapid trajectory, the market is clearly ready for wide-scale solar installations. With the Green Deal set as a priority for the incoming European Commission, and members states implementing ambitious national targets, the political climate is primed for the clean energy transition. And with solar estimated to create 1.7 million jobs in Europe by 2050, there is massive long-term socioeconomic potential. Now it is important to ensure that there are sufficient skilled workers to support the roll out of solar and renewable technologies. EuropeOn’s #Skills4Climate campaign, calling for the EU to incentivise technical education and up-skilling, is crucial to develop the next generation of green jobs. A skilled workforce is a core ingredient of delivering a just transition for Europeans and supporting the EU’s ambitious climate and energy targets.“

Thomas Nowak, Secretary General, EHPA: 

“Skilled experts are essential for the energy transition in the heating sector. They ensure the proper installation of green and efficient solutions while ensuring end-user comfort. Without these ‘heating heros’ the quest for a decarbonised building stock is lost before it even started.“

Eugenio Quintieri, Secretary General, European Builders Confederation: 

“EBC supports the #Skills4Climate campaign because the construction sector and its electrical trades are facing a shortage of qualified workforce in the field of “green” skills. With the ambition to contribute more efficiently to the achievement of the overall climate objectives, we consider that greater support should be provided at national and EU level for learning opportunities in our sector, both for the active professionals who are already being asked to continuously demonstrate new capabilities in a fast-changing technological landscape and for the potential newcomers and apprentices wishing to develop in our businesses. In this perspective, EBC is a partner of the EU co-funded project “Construction Blueprint”, which aims to establish a new framework for skills in the construction sector in Europe, by enhancing the matching between the companies’ needs and the programmes offered by training centres as well as anticipating skills’ needs in the fields of digitalisation, circular economy and energy efficiency.“

Ourania Georgoutsakou, Secretary General, LightingEurope: 

“By switching from incandescent lamps to energy efficient LED lamps, European citizens have benefited from up to 90% savings. The lighting industry is committed to offer EU citizens efficient lighting that benefits the environment but also human comfort, safety and well-being. We need trained and qualified professionals able to design, install and maintain lighting products and systems. We need them to source the right products from the EU market, as we see an ever-increasing number of non-compliant products items available. Our industry is already providing support to professionals through training programmes, for instance, but education and employment policies will play a key role in the future.“

Philippe Vangeel, Secretary General, AVERE: 

“We support EuropeOn’s #skills4climate as training and re-skilling of technical professionals, namely the operators of charge points across Europe, will be key to support the mass uptake of electric vehicles across Europe. This will ensure the overall transition to zero emission transport.  Together with EuropeOn, AVERE calls on the EU to create more jobs and growth opportunities for the e-mobility sector by prioritising skills-related instruments in the upcoming European Green New Deal. This should be coupled with the leveraging of public-private partnerships to promote much needed knowledge and capacity building.“

Oscar Querol, Secretary General, CECAPI: 

“The European electrical industry is working to achieve the requirement for greater energy efficiency in our homes to the benefit of the residents and also to support meeting the required national carbon reduction targets. To enable a smooth transition to a decarbonised power-based economy will however not solely depend on having energy efficient products, but also selecting the correct product for their application, as part of the installation and design processes. The electrical industry is committed to provide the required training to support the up-skilling of electrical installers. However, there is also a need for the EU and national policy makers to provide the additional training infrastructure and environment to accelerate the achievement of this objective.“

Casto Cañavate, Marketing Manager, KNX: 

“KNX is committed to creating a smart living environment, based on efficient and clean technologies. Professionals in home and building system using our technology can integrate any application into one common solution. We strongly believe that, going forward, installers and integrators will increasingly require new skills and we think energy and education policies must support the level up of such skills.“

Hans Hanegreefs, Secretary General, EUEW: 

“The European electrical wholesalers, represented within EUEW, are engaged to working with their partners in the ecosystem in driving the change towards a climate-neutral economy. Electrical wholesalers are in the center of the ecosystem sourcing the new technologies from manufacturers and supplying these with the relevant training to the installers. Currently, EUEW notes a lack in skilled professionals, which is hindering the electrical industry to deliver its full potential in deploying the new technologies needed for the energy transition.“

Christiane Mann, SVP Strategy and Operations, Schneider Electric: 

“Schneider Electric’s core business is the delivery of efficient, smart,  clean and safe electrical technologies. We work in close cooperation with the installers of our products to make sure that all machines and devices are well integrated and operate optimally throughout their full lifetime. Availability of properly skilled contractors will be key.“

Thomas Neesen, Secretary General, Europacable: 

“Cables are the enabler for a climate-neutral Europe. They are key in digitalising and boosting homes and buildings’ contribution to the decarbonisation of Europe’s society and economy. In this respect, Europacable recognises the importance of having highly-qualified and skilled electrical professionals operational to support the green transition. The choice of fully compliant electrical devices and cable systems according EU legislation is fundamental not just for supporting decarbonisation, but for promoting and improving buildings’ fire safety as well. Both the green transition and fire safety are a shared responsibility. And only well-trained and qualified electrical professionals will be able to contribute to both of  them.“

Diederik Peereboom, Secretary General, T&D Europe: 

“The European Green Deal must look at how we produce, transport, distribute and use energy. Electricity networks are the backbone of Europe’s energy system. To achieve climate neutrality we need to future-proof the European transmission and distribution network and improve its resilience by ensuring the quality of service and the continuity of supply under different circumstances. European technological know-how and innovation is essential to achieve this. Europe therefore needs to be able to educate and train high-skilled workers for the new energy sector.“

#Skills4Climate Supporters: