Young people have the power to effect change

Where are the opportunities, they asked the Scotsman Green Skills Conference 2024 conference delegates, for young people – young women, like us?

Collaboration, funding and opportunity were the themes which dominated the discussions at the event, sponsored by SSEN Transmission and held at Aberdeen’s Sandman Signature Hotel.

Panels featuring some of the sector’s most influential leaders covered current supply and demand of skills, the next generation of energy workers, links between education and industry, and how an existing workforce can be both reskilled and upskilled for new opportunities.

The conference came 24 hours after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer addressed world leaders in Baku at the UN Climate Change conference.

“The race is on for the clean energy jobs of the future. The economy of tomorrow,” he told COP29 delegates. “I don’t want to be in the middle of the pack, I want to get ahead of the game.”

Those words set the tone for the day at the Sandman –how to get Scotland ahead of the game.

In starker news, the morning sessions began just as it was confirmed carbon emissions from fossil fuel would reach a new high in 2024. Not surprising news, but sobering all the same.

Jason Stewart from Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, a membership body which represents not just new renewable enterprises but the wider energy and offshore sector in the region, described the North Sea as a “nation asset” for not just Scotland but the whole of the UK, and an asset that deserves a “national strategy”.

“We need a relentless focus on renewable energy jobs”, Stewart told delegates, also saying we need to support the existing 45,000 oil and gas jobs in the north-east.

Ricky Saez, programme director at SSEN Transmission, overseeing its flagship Eastern Green Link 2 scheme, added in the morning session that “transmission”, his area of expertise, is the “stealth bomber” of the energy sector – invisible but significant.

So, against that backdrop, where are the job opportunities for the next generation of energy workers? Morning sessions continued with the thoughts of two young women from St Machar Academy in Aberdeen on Shell’s Girls in Energy initiative.

Pupils Shraddha and Elizabeth talked about their journey engaging with STEM subjects as part of the course, which includes a mixture of classroom work, industry visits, workshops and conferences. The ultimate aim being to get young women into energy jobs.

But Shraddha and Elizabeth said that, while they would consider energy careers, they were focused on alternatives such as medicine because they saw a future there, whereas it was less clear in the green skills economy.

Morag Watt, lecturer at North East Scotland College who accompanied the pair, later reflected on the event: “Shraddha and Elizabeth took centre stage as they confidently gave their opinions on what they think is important for the next generation to have ahead of the energy transition, and how important programmes like Girls in Energy are in educating and highlighting the importance of these types of skills.

“It was incredibly rewarding to hear the girls speak with such passion about the programme and to see how positively the discussion resonated with everyone in the room.

“The discussions today were powerful, delivering a clear message – there’s a substantial skills and workforce gap, and urgent action is needed. Talent attraction must start at the grassroots level, with support from organisations, educational institutions and government working together.”

If Scotland – and in particular Aberdeen and the north-east – is to rise to Sir Keir Starmer’s challenge to get ahead of the game on renewable energy jobs, then acting on the clear message delivered by Shraddha and Elizabeth is the essential first step.

It is time to open up the opportunities of the green energy revolution and build the economy of the future.