How is the Welsh Government supporting skills development to prepare the workforce for careers in the energy sector?
We are working in partnership with Regional Skills Partnerships to understand energy sector priorities in Wales, in relation to skills, founded upon employer led labour market intelligence. This will inform skills policy, highlighting where there are gaps in energy provision and skills shortages in the Welsh workforce. This intelligence is shared with Medr, which could realign provision across the higher and further education sectors plus apprenticeship delivery to meet the needs of the sector.
We have also developed draft Sector Skills Roadmaps, one for each emission sector in Wales and this includes a draft Heat and Electricity Generation roadmap.
Our flagship Personal Learning Account (PLA) programme helps employed people upskill and reskill. An important element of the programme is the ‘Green PLA’ designed to meet net zero skills gaps in key areas including renewable energy solutions, retrofit, construction and engineering. The wage cap has been removed for the Green PLA to allow more people across more sectors to access these valuable net zero skills and qualifications.
Our successful Flexible Skills Programme includes a strand on Net Zero Skills which provides generous support for businesses to invest in themselves by upskilling and reskilling their workforce. The Net Zero Skills strand can support accredited training across the whole of the Energy Sector in Wales including, Solar, wind, hydrogen, hydroelectric power and geothermal energy technologies and systems as well as energy storage technologies, fuelling switching and retrofit.
We are committed to a sector deal with the renewable industry that will clarify how this Government will support industry to deliver on our renewable energy targets while setting out how new investment will benefit Wales including local job creation and skills development. I want to work on removing barriers to retaining benefit and value in Wales and to make sure Wales is an even more attractive place for new investment.