If we are seriously determined to grow a sustainable economy that will raise our living standards, then we are all going to have to go back to school.
Regardless of what sector we work in, whether wearing a hard hat on a North Sea platform or managing a business in an office, we’re going to need upskilling, retraining and IT know-how that equips us to meet the challenges of an increasingly high-tech environment.
Training and development isn’t a luxury item for firms with spare cash to indulge in. It is an indispensable tool for everyone who wants to stay in business.
This year’s Open University Business Barometer report shows 71% of Scottish organisations are experiencing skills shortages, so that over the next year 77% plan to invest in some form of staff training.
But it also reveals many small and medium-sized enterprises lack the necessary resources for effective reskilling, and so are “trapped in a cycle of continual recruitment and retention challenges”.
Scottish entrepreneurs recognise the urgency of the situation. Recent research from Lloyds Bank shows 56% of firms north of the border intend to invest in upskilling their workers over the next six months, more than in all other UK regions. On-the-job training is the most popular method of upskilling among Scottish companies, with 31% prioritising apprenticeships.
Data from Skills Development Scotland (SDS) shows that in Aberdeenshire, as of December 30 2022, there were 2,079 Modern Apprentices in training. The Modern Apprenticeship achievement rate for Aberdeenshire is 74.9%. Over Q2-Q4 of 2022, SDS supported 943 Modern Apprenticeship starts in the area – an important support system for skills development in the north-east.
Investment in a digital future is important for all organisations to capitalise on opportunities for growth. But research still shows people in all existing roles have insufficient access to digital skills upskilling.
Industry well-placed to develop talent, thanks to upskilling support
By growing our own diverse and inclusive talent pipeline it is possible for us to create the skills we need for a sustainable, prosperous and greener future, support future generations and access more diverse talent as they start their digital and tech careers.
Industry is well placed to develop its own talent by retraining and upskilling them through programmes like CodeClan, Techscaler and The Data Lab, working in collaboration with Opportunity North East (One), through the One Tech Hub.
CodeClan, Scotland’s not-for-profit digital academy, has retrained 2,000 people from every sector, including retail, hospitality, engineering and financial services, into technical roles as software engineers and data analysts over the past seven years.
It has placed them into more than 400 companies across Scotland.
Meanwhile, CodeClan’s new on-demand programme will allow companies to upskill their teams in software engineering and data science part time as they transition them into more in-demand technical roles in their organisations.
North-east must raise its game in terms of training and development
We’ve recently had good news for the north-east, with the region being chosen as one of the UK’s 12 new investment zones.
This represents an £80 million investment over five years, but to fully exploit the benefits we need to raise our game in training and development.
In many cases “retraining’ is another word for digitisation, especially in the context of securing supply chains. There’s a whole new world of high-tech innovation developing very fast and nowhere is this more the case than in the offshore energy industry.
New skills ‘passport’ key to unlocking the full potential of energy transition
Energy skills organisation Opito has developed an Integrated People and Skills Strategy to support the North Sea Transition Deal.
UK offshore energy jobs are forecast to grow to 211,000 by 2030, and although 50,000 oil and gas roles could be lost over the same period, 90% of employees in the hydrocarbon sector have skills transferable to green energy.
Key to workers’ ability to transfer to renewables will be the energy skills “passport”, a digital solution from Opito being developed by the 3t Transition Group which will identify employees’ skills and credentials for employment in the renewables sector.
It’s an industry set to transition beyond recognition. While the offshore sector is expected to be producing 200 million barrels of oil and gas annually by 2030, it’s also targeting 50 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind capacity, 20-30 million tonnes of carbon capture and storage capacity, and 10GW of hydrogen production.
Hydrogen is one of the most potentially rewarding technologies of the new energy industry.
Last month the Aberdeen Hydrogen Hub, a joint venture between Aberdeen City Council and BP to deliver a scalable, green hydrogen production, storage and distribution facility, received planning permission, with production expected to start in 2025.
Growth predictions modelled on the Scottish Government’s “hydrogen action plan” forecast this country’s upstream hydrogen economy will have a cumulative turnover of £7.6 billion by 2030, with direct annual employment of 6,614 full-time equivalent jobs.
The skills required will largely be at college and graduate levels, so a talent shortage is a concern for the new hydrogen economy.
Smarter subsea inspections
At the cutting edge of energy transition is the National Subsea Centre (NSC), the multi-million-pound centre of excellence for subsea research and technology development delivered under a partnership between Robert Gordon University and the Net Zero Technology Centre through the Aberdeen City Region Deal.
NSC will develop smart digital and engineering innovation, including integrating artificial intelligence technology into subsea inspection operations for a faster, more cost-effective and sustainable transition to net-zero in the North Sea.
North-east’s digital tech ambition
With more than 200 digital tech companies in the north-east, the ambition – with the support of One Tech Hub – is to grow 10 to 20 firms in the region to a turnover of £20m, operating on an international basis.
Entrepreneurs are investing in digital-based innovation. For example, Aberdeen-based Fennex, a digital technology company, has announced a £1.2m investment to accelerate its transition into the renewables sector over the next three years.
Businesses of all kinds need to embed IT solutions in their everyday work processes, with VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol, which allows you to make voice calls using a broadband internet connection instead of a regular phone line), other cloud services and backup solutions among the available facilities.
There are lots of people and plenty of opportunities to retrain and upskill talent with the new skills we now need to succeed. The key to prosperity is constantly updated know-how – and that’s why we all have to go back to school.
Martin Gilbert is co-founder and former chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management and chairman of AssetCo, Toscafund and Revolut.