1,600 people working in alternative fuels. That’s a significant increase in the number of people required.” There is another factor too.
“Hydrogen has a very unique set of skills and issues. In the UK, we have a demand-led system where employers and the sector start to need skills and then the system responds. However, one of the issues with a very nascent industry is that those demand signals are not very strong. They can also be fragmented. There’s also a lack of scale, and as a result, those messages to the supply chain, to colleges, to universities, and so on, aren’t a very strong message,” said Fosh. Another issue, she said, is that
the right infrastructure, so the UK receives all the benefits of a clean hydrogen economy. “The hydrogen economy at its
current scale faces a kind of chicken and egg problem. That’s common in many markets of this size. We need to create confidence and certainty, both on the supply side, and on the demand side. End users need certainty of available and affordable supplies before they start moving away from whatever fuel they are currently using towards clean hydrogen. Equally, hydrogen producers need certainty that there will be a market for the hydrogen they produce,” said Galpin. Being really clear on where
hydrogen will be needed and where it won’t be and prioritising strategically important end uses over poor value ones was also recommended.
SKILLING FOR GROWTH The industrial
sector is the
largest consumer of hydrogen. Use cases include the chemical industries, steelmaking, cement and glassmaking to the power sector. In her talk, Professor Aoife Foley,
Chair of Net Zero Infrastructure at University of Manchester noted hydrogen’s potential role in decarbonising agriculture, agrifood and transport to heating and cooling industrial loads, such as data centres.
Foley stated the industry was at
a ‘bridge point’ but that the UK isn’t in a hugely different situation to any other
country around
the world when it comes to the low carbon transition. She cited Germany, France, the US, Japan, China and India as all navigating similar challenges in developing the hydrogen industry. A sector of this size requires
the right talent. Another point of discussion was workforce skills gaps for installation, commissioning and beyond. “We have the key problem of
a skills shortage,” said Foley. “ It’s not just engineers – it’s technicians, tradespeople to do the installation, plumbers and electricians. All of these individuals, even people that can dig a trench to put in a pipe – are all part of a labour force that we need in order to scale up hydrogen, and the electrification of transport. It’s the same issue in all these infrastructure sectors.” Justine Fosh, CEO of Cogent
Skills, who have partnered with the Hydrogen Skills Alliance, spoke about their work to map talent needs and build skills across the whole hydrogen chain. “We undertook a piece of work
to estimate what the hydrogen workforce would look like. We got to a figure that by 2030, about 29,000 people will be employed against an initial starting point of around
not many brand new occupations will be required for the hydrogen sector. Instead, a lot of existing skills-based roles will need to learn a host of new additional skills to be able to deal with hydrogen. “That change in skills required is going to be quite significant,” added Fosh. In addition to reskilling needs,
there is a current lack of capacity to deliver apprenticeships and training to grow the new talent needed for the hydrogen economy. There is work to do, but as with
any emerging industry, growing business confidence and building public awareness and education of the hydrogen sector will be key to its sustained growth.
NUMBER CRUNCH
29,000 64,500
The estimated amount of jobs the hydrogen economy will directly support.
The amount of indirect jobs the hydrogen economy is expected to support by 2030.
* Source: Hydrogen Skills Alliance
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GLOBAL LEADERSHIP HYDROGEN INDUSTRY
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