Europe’s DSO labour and skills shortages identified

Labour and skills shortages in Europe’s energy sector have been identified by the DSO Entity in a yearlong campaign.

Based on ‘on the ground’ information from DSO Entity members and stakeholders in several areas of interest for DSOs, the study found that achieving Europe’s carbon neutrality by 2050 will require upskilling and reskilling of the workforce and increasing staff capacities on the ground to make the green and digital transitions happen.

In particular there is a deficit of professionals in the science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and the information and communication technologies (ICT) sectors and new specific skills and training are needed to cope with the creation and transformation of jobs.

There also is a need for recognition of the importance of soft skills to complement hard skills to deploy renewables and smarten the grid.

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The study found while some 65 million people are employed in Europe’s energy sector, almost three-quarters of the DSOs have encountered qualified staff shortages when connecting solar PVs to the grid, for example, while 66,000 jobs in solar PV manufacturing are needed.

Other areas of expertise needed include cybersecurity, data analysis and architectures and administration, for example to manage the growing grid connection requests.

Notably also just 16% of the energy sector jobs are held by women.

The study attributes staff shortages to the high degree of job transformation and fast growing demand for existing specialised jobs as well as scarcity of the needed high qualified technical and vocational profiles and consequent high competition in the labour market.

Almost two-thirds of the new jobs require also require some degree of post-secondary training.

DSO opportunities

According to the DSO Entity study the costs to retrain, reskill and upskill in manufacturing of strategic net zero technologies up to 2030 is estimated at €1.7 to 4.1 billion (US$1.9-4.5 billion).

In addition to this skills development, there is a need to make jobs in the sector attractive and to unlock the potential of education.

DSOs will need direct and indirect jobs to manage connection, maintenance and operation.

There is need for new educational multidisciplinary programmes adapted to energy companies’ needs and for the development of technical educational trainings in partnership with industries.

As a key player in the energy transition DSOs should be – and are – at the forefront of addressing these challenges. Areas of activity that can be further developed include skills partnerships with governments and education systems, knowledge sharing and innovative job awareness and hiring campaigns.