Section 10 - People: People Powered Change
Contents
People are at the heart of this strategy. The energy transition and the work to be done to achieve a fully just transformation will be undertaken by people at home, at work, and in the community.
Section 7 talked about aligning technology with behaviour change to achieve emissions reductions. This section will look at the building capacity in the workforce through jobs and skills as well as exploring how participation and working together will drive transformation.
Workforce
Beyond domestic lifestyle changes, the energy transition will impact Shetlanders in their professions and careers in a myriad of ways. Shetland should supply a range of offerings for studying, learning, and working in the energy transition in order to maintain population, retain wealth, and maximise opportunities.
Current
Shetland has a limited capacity within its existing workforce across all sectors due to low unemployment, high underemployment, and an aging workforce.
There are an estimated 14,200 people in employment in Shetland with around 1000 people working either directly or indirectly in the energy sector.
However, this workforce is aging. There has been a decline in the number of young workforce coming in to fill roles across Shetland even with 96% of 16-19 year olds are in education, employment, training and personal development.
Future
It is estimated that there will be 2000 jobs in the energy sector (direct & indirect) in Shetland at the peak of the energy developments, mostly during construction phase. After the peak, during the operations & maintenance phase, the number of jobs will level out to around 1,500 longer term roles. Based on these predictions, the number of jobs increases by 1.5x by 2035.
The exact number and type of jobs that will be required will depend on which developments do make it through to the development stage. Aligning a project timeline with the general job statistics to deliver each can provide some ideas of the types and number of jobs that will become available.
Opportunities:
- Showcasing the skilled workforce and companies with a track record on the delivery of projects in Shetland
- Positioning Shetland as a centre for excellence
- Growing the training sector through the development of a wider range of academic routes and courses
- Supporting innovation and opportunities attractive to youth
- Encouraging people to live, work, and study in Shetland
Challenges:
- Low unemployment rates
- High underemployment rates
- Competition for jobs in existing sectors
- Understanding which jobs and skills will be needed and when
- Higher cost of living creates the need for high-skilled/higher-paid jobs
- High cost of doing business
- New entrants dependent on limited accommodation
- Flexible childcare arrangements
Jobs
One of the challenges for Shetland will be ensuring a just transition in employment from O&G to renewable and clean energy jobs. This will require strategic planning and alignment to create a balanced phase out of O&G jobs and phase in of clean energy jobs without leaving anyone behind.
There are many studies about how to create this balance, but they are at a regional and national level. The predictions for the future of Scotland’s energy sector show the possibilities for jobs and roles during the transition to renewable and low-carbon energy. Hydrogen production and offshore wind may be the biggest future energy employers. Shetland will need to create its own roadmap for transitioning jobs and skills based on the unique circumstances of a rural, remote island.
An energy transition in Shetland would create a large number of jobs in a range of different role types from tradespeople to consultants, etc. The graph below shows how some of these jobs, defined by low energy production types, will grow at a national level. For Shetland, low-carbon jobs will depend on the number and types of projects in development along the same timeline. Early indicators of available roles from the developers themselves can help us design pathways for local employment in those open roles.
Shetland has an already established skilled workforce and companies with experience delivering energy projects. With an increase in energy projects, an increase in the workforce capacity will be required to maximise the local opportunity. These new roles can be filled in a number of ways:
- Promoting Shetlanders in key industry roles – capturing the long-term, high-paid jobs by the existing workforce in Shetland and reducing the number of roles that are filled externally
- New Entrants – growing the existing energy workforce capacity to eliminate competition with other economic sectors (link to education, gender, and bringing new talent/repopulation)
- Workforce pathways – encouraging apprenticeships and non-university paths to enable quicker uptake up available roles.
Promoting Shetland in Industry roles
To maximise the benefits to Shetland, it is essential that the existing Shetland workforce access the long-term, high-paying roles that could come along with the transition. With new opportunities arising across various parts of new energy developments and auxiliary services that will be needed to enable these developments, there will need to be a plan to identify roles and pathways.
New Entrants
Due to the large number of jobs that will become available with the transition, not all of these will or can be filled by the existing Shetland energy workforce. The workforce capacity will have to grow to eliminate competition with other important local economic sectors. There are a number of ways to grow the workforce in-line with the job supply.
The young workforce is one way to increase new entrants into the transition workforce. Pupils can be engaged throughout their education and curriculum to spark enthusiasm. However, it is essential to let schools and parents know the opportunities that are coming down the pipeline. Teachers and parents will encourage the younger generation to work towards a career in a sector that can provide long-term opportunities and economic stability. There is a drive across the energy industry to promote gender diversity into roles that have traditionally been male dominated. The demographics of women in energy roles is increasing, but there is now an opportunity to encourage more women to become part of the energy workforce. This will increase the capacity of Shetland for transformation projects, and also increase household income. Establishing Shetland as a great place to live, work, and study will encourage families and workers to move to Shetland to fill new roles and build capacity for the transition.
Beyond empowering women to take on these roles, we aim to increase diversity broadly across the energy industry.
Pathways
There are high rates of youth going into the higher education in Shetland already. Many pupils leave Shetland to receive degrees; however, a number decide not to return directly after obtaining them. In order to address our aging workforce, we must encourage the young workforce to return.
Provision of relevant courses in Shetland is one way to retain some of the leave-takers. Signalling to competitive jobs in Shetland’s energy sector may be another way.
A wide range of job types are required to achieve a just energy transition. Not all of these roles and careers require a university route to employment. Apprenticeships have been a key pathway for the supply chain to train and secure their workforce by placing workers into the field for on the job training. These will continue to be valuable. While companies are looking to increase their workforce, there are limitations on the number of apprentices that they can train at one time.
Skills
The energy transition will make some roles and careers obsolete. There will not be an immediate shift from O&G to renewables. Instead, a balanced approach will be required to reduce redundancies. The phase out of O&G must match a scale up of low-carbon developments. Skills development will enable the just transition of workers and businesses in Shetland.
Transferability
In the future, O&G as a fuel and means of energy will become obsolete and replaced with other greener options. With O&G as a large employer in Shetland, there is a fear of the workforce also becoming obsolete. However, many of the roles and skills in the energy sector will be transferrable across technology type and worker experience. According to a report by Robert Gordon University, “Over 90% of the UK’s O&G workforce have medium to high skills transferability and are well positioned to work in adjacent energy sectors.”
New Skills
There are new technologies that are not equivocal to what we have today. This means that the skills and experiences of the existing workforce may not match what is needed to progress these technologies. The workforce that do not have transferable skills can be reskilled or upskilled to match emerging low-carbon roles and opportunities thereby creating local capacity. LinkedIn has generally defined upskill and reskill:
- Upskilling is when an employee undertakes learning to expand their existing skill set with the aim to enhance the worker’s performance in their current role.
- Reskilling involves an employee learning new skills outside of the worker’s existing skill set which may be geared toward a different path entirely.
Each allow an employee to expand their knowledge; however, the difference lies in the nature of the new skills learned and the end goal.
In terms of the energy transition specifically, reskilling means “acquiring skills for careers and industries that are net zero by leaving behind old practices that are emissions-intensive and acquiring new ones that are suitable for future industries.” Upskilling mean “acquiring skills for careers and industries that are net zero, ideally by adapting skills that have already been learned and are applicable to new jobs and needs.”
Training and Certifications
Low-carbon and energy efficiency works will require workers and businesses to obtain certifications and trainings to carry out specific mitigation measures. Many funding streams and grants require these certifications to take on the projects.
While there are many benefits to obtaining these, there are 3 main barriers to acquiring training and certifications: Cost, Time, & Availability. The certifications are expensive, large time commitments, and are generally not available in Shetland. Additionally, there is little motivation for with businesses’ backlogs of work to take these on as they already have healthy workloads for the near to medium term
However, in the long-term these trainings and certifications will be required to transition our economy and our usage of energy. Without them, we will miss opportunities to decarbonise and to obtain national funding measures. We must establish mechanisms to diminish the risks to businesses. Some options are:
- Shared trainings – multiple businesses are working with the same technologies and constraints. Sharing the cost can disperse the risk to businesses that undertake trainings together.
- Training bodies – some national training organisations have mechanisms in place for sharing the risks with businesses. Locally, UHI Shetland can provide courses for training and skills development.
- Policy change – many of the policies and targets from the national governments are targeted at populated city centres. Advocating for island specific measures and policies can allow for different approaches to trainings and change the certification requirements.
Employers need indicators on future projects and the opportunities to reduce the risks associated with training. Policy drivers are key for directing organisations and employers towards the trainings and skills that will be required at the national level to obtain funding.
Case Study - Shetland Green Skills Group
The Shetland economy is particularly reliant on a few key sectors that employ large numbers of the population including fishing, aquaculture, and O&G. Though Shetland has a significantly lower unemployment rate compared to the rest of Scotland, there is a labour and skills shortage.
The Shetland Green Skills Group has been established with the specific role of ensuring skills issues, from education to industry are well understood, and an effective and timely response developed to ensure a skilled workforce and appropriate training provision is in place to address challenges and capitalise on opportunities that will arise as Shetland progresses its energy transition ambitions.
Education
One part of behaviour change is education at younger ages to change the habits learned and engrained from a young age. Primary & secondary education has been broken out as separate measure. Education will be essential for teaching the younger generation a new/different mind-set about how we use and generate energy. However, we need to maintain the momentum from an early age. This is underway in multiple ways including:
- Primary and Secondary school curriculums already include climate sciences with a focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation. The ambition of including these topics during primary and secondary education will encourage an uptake of interest of the youth who will be the innovators, leaders, and key energy workforce in the future.
- The uptake of other types of extracurricular school activities that focus on green skills and climate change should be encouraged beyond just the curriculum. Parents will be essential to ensuring engagement with topics at home and keeping up the momentum.
Today’s youth and younger generations will be the persons most impacted by climate change, but they will have a large part to play in the solutions and uptake of technologies to address the challenges that will arise. The climate crisis and energy transition will require innovative thinking and a diversified workforce. New ideas from the young workforce will be valuable in mixing up the current energy workforce and spark new solutions.
The projection for green jobs and skills is amplifying over the coming decades with many of those focused on green energy. We need to place Shetland’s students and youth into the position to fill these roles by encouraging the knowledge needed to be successful in these roles. Our educational services will need to connect the dots between what is learned in school to what jobs will be available to the youth in Shetland as the energy transition is underway. Engagement should aim to capture early interest in youth for energy and green job roles. There is also a need to help parents understand that there are jobs in these fields to bring them on-board with the curriculum and encouraging their children to follow these paths.
In addition to teaching our young ones about energy efficient habits and a consciously applying climate adaptation and mitigation practices to everyday situations, there will need to be a re-education and awareness raising for older generation to encourage understanding of how to best adjust habits and lifestyles to match that which is required to eliminate emissions and energy consumption.
Housing and Accommodation
One intersectional challenge that must be addressed is housing. A rise in the number of workers in Shetland will impact the accommodation as well as on-island services. However, not having enough housing will hinder the repopulation and movement of families to Shetland to help build the capacity we need to undertake this energy transition. The housing conundrum is perpetuated by the lack of capacity in the construction industry to build new houses in Shetland.
With the range of energy development types and locations across Shetland, there is an opportunity to grow accommodation throughout Shetland.
However, holistic planning of energy projects through cooperation and collaboration will be necessary to ensure that areas are not sterilised for housing or other developments.
We will statements for Workforce
- We will undertake further research to understand the pipeline of upcoming projects to ensure we have the skills and capacity to handle the predicted change in employment.
- We will encourage and support diversity within the workforce.
Participation
While climate change is attributed to years of misuse of the world’s resources, it is not a useful to place blame on the WHO and HOW this has happened. Now is the time for action to progress our ambitions, transform the way that we interact with our world, and redefine how we use our resources without disadvantaging future generations.
This is a task that everyone should participate in to drive Shetland’s clean energy future.
Empowerment
Every person has a part to play in the energy transition and changing how we use energy. However, tackling this is not something we can do in isolation. We must empower ourselves and those around us to make our clean, affordable, secure energy vision a reality.
Empowerment is equipping individuals and the community with the power and resources to undertake and accelerate the energy transition. Building knowledge, understanding, skills and capacity within the community will enable groups and individuals to undertake and accelerate their own activities.
Energy is complex, and the transformation is daunting. This strategy contains information on how different parts of the energy system interplay and fit together as a first tool to breaking the energy system into more understandable parts and increasing knowledge. The provision of informational resource and knowledge sharing with individuals and the community will not stop at this strategy.
One pathway for empowerment is already established and will be utilised for progressing the conversation about Shetland’s energy future. The Shetland Climate Conversation is led by the Council with the aim to engage with the community to understand what individuals, businesses, and volunteer groups think, feel and say about climate change. The Climate Conversation is a way to raise awareness around climate issues and positive climate action happening around Shetland.
Now that there are development opportunities in play in and around Shetland our efforts need to be switched from promoting opportunities towards making the most of those opportunities for the Shetland community. That is why a set of Energy Development Principles has been prepared to form the basis of future discussions with energy developers whether in renewables or in the remaining new oil and gas ventures to the West of Shetland.
Decision-making & Policy Change
As citizens of the UK and contributors to the national economy, it sits with us to help drive the decisions that are made that affect our futures. While Shetland has the potential to be a powerhouse of energy generation, national decision-makers do not always put the needs of remote islands at the centre of their policies. We must assist with and be involved in the vision planning for the future that we see for our islands.
National decisions tend to be focused on technology type without granularity on how targets will be achieved and what will be required across the country. Shetlanders hold the local knowledge required to drive transition in our region and should be centre to identifying pathways and technologies that are best suited to our geography and circumstances.
Our local elected members are essential to ensuring that Shetlanders are not disadvantaged by the policies at a national level and that the most local benefit possible can be obtained. Choosing politicians that support and represent our ambitions are key to delivering the mechanisms required to create transformative change.
This strategy is intended as a tool to help local decision-makers and national policy-makers make choices that progress the transition in alignment with our unique circumstances and our vision.
We will statements for participation
- We will empower the community through raising awareness and understanding of energy transition and facilitating and supporting community-led action, building capacity within the community.
- We will empower the community by highlighting opportunities to influence decisions relating to energy transition.
Working Together
Imperative in the transition to net zero is the need for cooperation and collaboration. We do not have the time or resource to tackle all of the challenges on our own but as there is no one size fits all solution we need to understand what has worked and what hasn’t worked in other places and why.
Mentioned throughout the Energy Strategy is the uniqueness of the Scottish island communities and the challenges they face unlike other regions. The weather and connectivity require resilient practices and build resilient people. There is a comradery (and competitiveness) amongst island communities as they face similar circumstances.
Islands and remote communities have their own unique challenges and solutions in contrast to areas with a higher population density. This holds especially true for the Scottish Isles. Many of the policies and solutions that are proposed by the UK and Scottish Governments do not hold the answers for the islands.
Ensuring a Just Transition to Net Zero with secure and affordable energy will require cooperation, collaboration and joined up thinking. The current chaotic nature of development and discussion requires a measured approach. The route to net zero is unclear, we need to ensure that all projects we are involved in and the stakeholders we engage with all add value to the work already started and align with the four long term outcomes as set out in the Introduction.
We must also ensure that any lessons learnt from one project feedback to test our scenarios for the future, as any updated information on infrastructure could change our thinking on the skills or the shape of a future workforce.
With the monumental tasks ahead, we do not have the time or resource to duplicate effort.
Regional Challenges & Learning from others
The main challenges that islands share:
- Harsher weather (colder average temperatures, heavier winds, more rainfall)
- Less physical connectivity (i.e. dependency on ferries and planes)
- Less broadband connectivity
- Dependency on fossil fuels
These challenges require island-proofing in national policy and tailored solutions. What works on the mainland or in other regions may not be applicable or the best way forward for islands.
Being bordered on all sides by water defines the geographic boundaries and maintains self-contained smaller-scale systems. Those conditions provide an opportunity for islands to become the test beds for new systems before they are rolled out wider.
Some of the most well- established and experienced energy organisations in the country are based in the islands and therefore have a strong start on the road to Net Zero. However, the islands also have some of the most challenging environments and barriers to overcome. The Shetland Energy Strategy aims to support people to really think about what role island communities and local energy projects can have in instigating and sustaining change, and how the greatest impact can be achieved to enable islands and Scotland to reach Net Zero.
Islands Centre for Net Zero
The Islands Centre for Net Zero (ICNZ) and Carbon Neutral Islands (CNI) along with other programmes should help to accelerate the learning on the transition to net zero between the isles.
The ICNZ is being established to address the need for fundamental change in how we approach energy transition, empowering the islands to act as lighthouse communities navigating the pathways and owning solutions to decarbonisation as quickly as possible. It will operate across Orkney, Shetland and the Outer Hebrides and will advance 10 work packages.
The ICNZ will be supported through a £16.5M funding package from the Islands Deal, split £5M Shetland, £5M Outer Hebrides and £6.5 Orkney and the core costs.
ICNZ will deliver an integrated cross-sectoral energy transition programme, involving businesses, universities, communities, and the public sector in accelerating our islands transition to net zero. The Centre will build capacity for the transition through the development of a number of tools that can be used across the islands: the ICNZ ‘Toolbox’. ICNZ will then use these tools as the basis for seed funding a selection of high-impact and innovative capital energy transition projects in the islands. It is anticipated the suite of capital transition projects will lever in additional match funding over the Growth Deal period.
Carbon Neutral Islands Project
The Carbon Neutral Islands project is a Scottish Government programme aimed at supporting islands to become carbon neutral by 2040 in a fair and just way.
Individual plans are to be developed for each of the six selected islands in collaboration with the key partners and communities involved. The aim is to share good practice and learnings from the project with all other Scottish islands. The islands included as part of the project are: Hoy, Islay, Great Cumbrae, Raasay, Barra and Yell.
ORION Clean Energy Project
The ORION Clean Energy Project is a strategic framework with the aim to shape and promote Shetland as a world leading clean energy island. Led by Shetland Islands Council, with the following partners: Lerwick Port Authority, Net Zero Technology Centre, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and the University of Strathclyde.
As a catalyst for change, ORION has and will encourage collaboration with Shetland stakeholders and projects with a net zero focus to help generate clean, affordable power, help eradicate fuel poverty, protect the environment, and provide job opportunities throughout the isles’ supply chain.
Successes achieved in conjunction with the ORION Clean Energy Project
Scottish Government, National Planning Framework 4 – Shetland's energy hub credentials have been recognised and Energy Innovation Development on the Islands, is one of the eighteen developments of national importance.
Recognition of ORION and Shetland within the Scottish Government’s Hydrogen Action Plan.
ORION helped to promote significant interest by wind developers in the ScotWind offshore wind licensing process and the award of offshore floating wind licences to ESB, Mainstream RP & Ocean Winds for NE1 to the east of Shetland.
Highlighting the need for an integrated energy system for Shetland and instigating discussion and collaboration between developers and stakeholders. Several studies detailing the potential for Shetland to become a clean energy hub, including marine fleet modelling and power grid analysis. Shetland has also been promoted at several national and international clean energy events.
The future
Now that offshore wind projects are progressing and onshore plans are being discussed for the production of hydrogen and synthetic fuels at scale, the role of ORION needs to change. Our emphasis has switched away from promoting the idea of an energy hub in Shetland towards helping to facilitate the projects that are now being advanced. This is where the 4Shetland Forum and the Energy Development Principles become increasingly important.
4Shetland Forum
The role of the 4Shetland Forum is to take a holistic/ strategic view to the delivery of the Energy Development Principles and facilitate the delivery of an action plan to support the delivery. They also provide a vehicle for engagement with the developers. Membership of the group includes representatives from the Council, Highlands & Islands Enterprise (HIE), Lerwick Port Authority and NORN.
Shetland PLC
The role of Shetland PLC is to focus on the actions that the supply chain need to undertake for Shetland to deliver floating offshore wind. Membership of the group includes: HIE as Chair, SIC Ports and Harbours, Lerwick Port Authority, NORN and UHI Shetland.
We will statements, working together
- We will learn from others and collaborate when there is opportunity to do so.
- Collate a resource to facilitate action planning and collaborative working.