Chemical industry ‘must be seen as crucial to net zero or struggle to attract talent’
15 Aug 2023
Public belief that the chemicals industry is not key to achieving net zero is undermining its recruitment efforts, warns a new report.
And strategic skills body for science and technology Cogent Skills’ survey, A greenprint on skills for the low carbon industries, says the sector’s failure to attract new entrants is longstanding and stretches back the better part of a decade, with a claimed 48 per cent drop in new apprenticeships since 2015-16.
As a key sector contributing more than £30 billions of Gross Value Added (GVA) and employing 145,000 people, the chemicals industry is vital to economic success. But, says Cogent, it is also essential to enabling the UK to attain net zero, through its role in low carbon industries such as hydrogen, batteries and synthetic fuels.
Cogent Skills CEO Justine Fosh said: “Established industries such as chemicals must attract a workforce which can maintain operational resilience while advancing strategies for long-term sustainability.”
Transitioning the sector would require not only technological changes but corresponding skills retraining and upskilling, concluded Cogent.
Additional research with the Chemical Industries Association suggested that adoption of different equipment or software would not fundamentally alter roles and required skills but introduction of sustainable, low carbon technologies would require new and strategically-focused engineering jobs.
CIA chief executive Steve Elliott commented: “Net zero for our country and our planet will only be reached and then sustained through the efforts of people in the chemical sector. This highly-skilled workforce is already driving the transition – we need to ensure there are people who want, and are able, to be the chemical industry’s workforce of the future.
“This report enables a new understanding of how critical the supply of skilled people is and I look forward to seeing the implementation of its recommendations.”
