France’s electricity network workforce is short by 43,000 people
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For France to succeed in its energy transition ambitions, its electricity network workforce will need to recruit 43,000 people over the next six years within key professions.
The figure comes from a study titled Job and Skills Needs in the Electricity Networks Sector by French DSO Enedis and TSO RTE, alongside various bodies representing the country’s electricity grid sector.
Enedis and RTE plan to invest nearly €200 billion ($215.7 billion) by 2040 to continue adapting the grid to climate change, as well as to develop new uses such as electric mobility and the integration of renewable energies.
Such investments will lead to significant hiring in the coming years within companies in the electricity grid sector.
Currently, says Enedis, 1,600 companies (including electricity transmission and distribution managers, equipment suppliers and service providers) make up the electricity network sector, representing around 100,000 jobs.
Within such professions, 43,000 skilled professionals need to be recruited in the period to 2030 for jobs that are critical to the electricity sector.
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These critical professions, representing around 50,000 jobs, are expected to grow by 61% by 2030 to reach around 79,000 jobs.
Taking into account natural departures of professionals, Enedis says that reaching these numbers requires recruiting around 43,000 women and men between 2025 and 2030, or around 7,000 people per year, in fifteen technical professions.
The need for these jobs will be of particular concern in Normandy, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie and Ile-de-France.
These massive recruitment needs will put pressure on professional training systems, barred by challenges of sizing and filling, territorial distribution, inter-sectoral competition, and low numbers of female professionals.
More on energy’s workforce challenge:
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To meet these challenges, the study recommends:
- Strengthening the attractiveness of the sector’s professions and the training courses that lead to them from secondary school onwards by increasing awareness-raising actions among secondary school students, parents, teachers and careers advisors;
- Carrying out targeted actions to promote the number of female professionals;
- Developing training content and specialisations;
- Increasing training capacities, particularly in BTS (Brevet de Technicien Supérieur – a two-year, post-secondary, vocational diploma) electrotechnics;
- Diversify recruitment pools by developing training offers for people in retraining
Commenting in a release was Xavier Piechaczyk, chairman of the RTE Executive Board: “The growth in investments in electricity transmission and distribution networks is synonymous with new opportunities and jobs in France.
“By 2030, recruitment needs in the electricity network sector will represent a volume comparable to those in the nuclear and railway sectors. To succeed in this industrial adventure, the electricity network sector is mobilising to develop the training offer for the driving forces of decarbonisation.”
Network Schools
Anticipating the workforce challenge Enedis, RTE, and the same sector groups who launched the study, in 2023 opened the Network Schools for the Energy Transition, programme, which aims to strengthen the attractiveness of training and professions in the sector.
The programme brings together more than 150 high schools in Bac Pro MELEC and BTS electrotechnics , offering professional training geared towards electrical networks professions throughout France with:
- 30% of specialised content dedicated to the sector’s professions;
- 18 weeks of internship in partner companies;
- Field visits and meetings with professionals;
- Interventions by volunteer employees in class.
The programme also aims to develop professional training to promote retraining and reintegration into professions in the sector in partnership with France Travail and training organisations.
Said Marianne Laigneau, chair of the Enedis executive board: “The ‘Network Schools for the Energy Transition’ programme is the electricity network industry’s response to the skills challenge posed by the ecological and energy transition. Along with all of its suppliers and in partnership with public authorities, Enedis is working to train those who are building the new electric France.”
Enedis and RTE’s study was funded by the French State as part of the “Skills and Careers of the Future” program of the France 2030 plan.
The study was carried out by the two operators alongside FNTP (️Fédération Nationale des Travaux Publics), SERCE (Syndicat des Energies Renouvelables et de la Construction Électrique), SNER (National Union of Professional Unions for the Construction and Maintenance of Dry Networks), GIMELEC (French association of companies in the digital electronics sector) and SYCABEL (which represents companies in the energy and digital transition).
