News analysis with BESA
Diversity in skills and thought is a critical challenge
The industry’s lack of diversity means we are not just missing out on talent and skills but also on vital new approaches to engineering challenges, according to the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA)
T
he changing landscape for building services engineering means we desperately need a more diverse workforce that better refl ects UK society and brings fresh, new approaches to the challenges we face. However, according to new research from Energy
Systems Catapult, just 2% of the heating industry’s workforce is female and only 5% are from an ethnic minority background. This lack of diversity makes it very hard to take on key issues like the decarbonisation of HVAC systems, and to address government targets for scaling up heat pump installations and replacing gas boilers, for example. Yet statistics show that career opportunities
are increasing in step with rapid growth in the low carbon and energy effi ciency markets. There were three times more ‘green’ jobs advertised in the UK last year than in 2021, according to the business consultancy PwC, which published the second edition of its Green Jobs Barometer recently. Low carbon construction and energy effi ciency
retrofi tting posts are among the skills included in the survey with recruitment growing by more than 200,000 positions to 336,800 in the 12 months to last November. That is four times the growth rate seen across the economy as a whole – with around 2.2% of all new positions now classifi ed as ‘green’.
Shortages
PwC found noticeable regional variations with more than a third of the roles based in London and the South East, although Scotland is also growing strongly. It added that the market is still dominated by professional and scientifi c roles, with shortages in many of the technical posts needed to drive the net zero transition. The report said the construction related
sector would need to recruit at least 10,000 new tradespeople each year, and as many as 66,000 this decade to meet its decarbonisation targets, including energy effi ciency retrofi ts and low-carbon heating installations.
“Our industry needs new approaches to meet its
skills gap and embrace the technologies that will help to tackle climate change. A diff erent workforce also brings the diversity of thought that will be essential if it is to grow and develop,” said BESA’s director of training and skills Helen Yeulet. She pointed out that many other industries had
already reaped the benefi ts of recognising that people from diff erent backgrounds bring diversity of ideas and approaches. “Building services continues to miss out,” said
Yeulet. The online BESA Academy training facility is
focusing heavily on encouraging greater diversity of opportunity in the building services sector, but believes the industry needs to make its employment and training models more fl exible to attract a wider cross-section of the UK population. “We must make our industry more inclusive and
representative of the society it serves,” said Yeulet. “It is crucial that we shift the ‘male, stale and pale’ image so that we can recruit the multi-background, multi-talented workforce our companies need to play their part in future economic growth. Otherwise, it is hard to see how the industry as we know it can survive. “We are not fi shing in the right pools for our
skills. Other industries are heavily focused on the BAME population because they see so much innovative thinking and new ideas emerging there, while unconscious bias means we continually return to stereotypical ideas of what a heating engineer should look like.”
BESA believes apprentices will be increasingly important as we try to deal with a rapidly ageing workforce with a high proportion of employees now over 55. The sector has also seen a sharp drop in the number of workers under 30, so employers are being urged to sign up to the Association’s ‘Future Skills’ pledge and commit to taking on at least one apprentice this year. “Apprenticeships are not just for young people but
are suitable for those of any age looking to learn a new skill and for people from all backgrounds who might not have seen our industry as an attractive career destination in the past,” said Yeulet. She added that BESA wanted to make the industry a place where people with new ideas would feel empowered to make a diff erence. The decarbonisation of heat is the perfect example because it is a fast-growing sector where engineers can help to address climate change and cut energy bills for hard-pressed households. However, the Catapult’s report argues that
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April 2023
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