Britain’s electricity networks are entering a period of transformation, with £181 billion of investment expected through to 2035 to maintain, expand and modernise the infrastructure that powers homes, communities and businesses.
The new Electricity Networks Sector Growth Plan, developed jointly by the Energy Networks Association (ENA) and BEAMA, sets out how this investment can support economic growth, strengthen domestic supply chains and create long-term employment opportunities across Great Britain.
The Plan estimates that network investment could support more than 210,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2035 and around £58 billion of cumulative Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK economy.
Energy & Utility Skills Group led the workforce and skills research and analysis supporting the wider Sector Growth Plan, working with organisations across the electricity networks sector. Our work examines the people, skills and capability needed to turn future network investment into delivery, providing the evidence base for the accompanying Workforce and Skills report.
Building the workforce behind network growth
The Workforce and Skills report finds that the electricity networks sector directly employs around 90,000 people today.
By 2035, the directly employed workforce could grow to between 117,000 and 124,000 people, depending on the level of future growth.
Under the Maintain scenario used for the report’s detailed workforce analysis, this would mean approximately 27,000 additional direct jobs.
But growth is only one part of the workforce requirement.
Around 21,000 people are expected to retire over the period, with a further 23,000 expected to leave the sector through normal workforce turnover.
Together, growth and replacement demand mean the sector will need to attract, recruit, train and retain around 71,000 people into its directly employed workforce by 2035.
Across direct and indirect employment in the extended supply chain, the wider Sector Growth Plan identifies around 128,000 job openings by 2035.
A once-in-a-generation workforce opportunity
The scale of the opportunity extends across different occupations, skill levels and regions.
Construction and installation will experience particularly significant growth. Under the report’s Maintain scenario, this workforce is projected to grow from around 18,000 to 37,000 by 2035, an increase of 106%.
The opportunities span different routes into the sector too, with the analysis identifying demand at sector-entry, craft, graduate, management and leadership levels.
Around 6,000 apprenticeship starts could be required over the next decade, creating an important pathway into good-quality, long-term careers within electricity networks.
However, the challenge is not simply about increasing workforce numbers.
The report identifies existing shortages across critical occupations, long training and competence lead times, constrained training capacity and increasing competition for talent from other infrastructure and clean energy sectors.
It also underlines the importance of retaining experienced workers and transferring their knowledge to the next generation.
Moving from evidence to action
The research therefore goes beyond identifying the scale of the workforce requirement.
It sets out a coordinated Workforce Action Plan structured around four Strategic Actions:
- Sector collaboration to address current workforce challenges
- Place good-quality jobs and fair work at the heart of the sector’s ambition
- Create and spread opportunity across the country
- Establish centralised training for network-critical professions
Together, these actions provide a roadmap for expanding training capacity, improving mobility through more consistent standards, strengthening workforce planning, widening routes into the sector and retaining critical skills and knowledge.
More than 100 organisations and over 400 stakeholders contributed to the evidence, insights and recommendations underpinning the work, making it one of the most comprehensive workforce and skills exercises undertaken across the sector.
Robert Murphy, Workforce Planning Consultant at Energy & Utility Skills Group, said:
“We’re incredibly proud to have led the workforce and skills research and analysis supporting the Sector Growth Plan, working alongside organisations from across the electricity networks sector to build a shared evidence base for the future.
“For the first time, the sector has come together to develop a coordinated assessment of its future workforce and skills requirements and a shared plan for addressing them.
“The findings demonstrate the scale of the opportunity, but infrastructure investment alone will not deliver Britain’s network ambitions. Workforce capability must grow alongside it.
“The priority now is turning that evidence into action by widening routes into the sector, strengthening training capacity, improving workforce planning and making the best possible use of the skills and experience already available across the workforce.”
The Workforce and Skills report sits alongside the main Electricity Networks Sector Growth Plan and accompanying Economic Impact and Supply Chain reports.
Explore the Electricity Networks Sector Growth Plan and accompanying reports here.
