Due to the relative infancy of the green energy sector, there is a shortage of green skills training available and, while the net zero target promises to open a new job market, a green skills shortage threatens the energy transition.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) estimates that between 135,000 and 725,000 new jobs could be created in low carbon sectors such as installation, renewable energy generation and electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030.
Meanwhile, a report released by UK government agency Skills England found that the green transition will likely affect one in five UK jobs, spurring prime minister Keir Starmer to announce a new growth and skills levy.
It notes that “building the supply of necessary skills will take time, with some complex occupations requiring reskilling to meet the standards needed”.
Segen distributes solar PV, EV charging, energy storage system technologies, heat pumps, and ancillary electricity equipment, and the Segen academy—which launched at the end of October—is located beside the company’s distribution centre in Rochester.
It will have the capacity to train about 1,600 installers annually, equipping apprentices and electricians with essential skills for the expanding solar PV, battery energy storage system (BESS), heat pump and EV markets.
The purpose-built skills academy is part of the company’s effort to tackle the UK’s shortage of qualified renewables installers. Segen staff involved in the project spoke to Current± about the project’s inception and how it will support the installers of the future.
Building a green skills academy
Last summer, Segen customers began feeding back that they wanted more than the qualifications that were available on the market, says James Galloway, Segen’s European technical director. There was a lack of available training for the “real life” skills that renewable technology installers need and, on the strategic side, Segen has quoted three times the number of trained installers than we currently have will be needed to install the target 70GW of solar by 2035.
Galloway says the company, as a leading distributor, felt the need to do something to help: “We agreed quite quickly that we should invest, and then we started sketching.”
In forming a curriculum, Galloway says the company selected one of the (only) three awarding bodies in the UK for renewable technology installation and “spent a lot of time getting the finer details right for the formal qualification”.
Rachael Dodd, senior head of marketing for Segen, adds that after hearing from installers and visiting what the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) foundation sees as the best facilities in the UK, Dodd says the company was “very keen” on making its own training centre “above and beyond what customers wanted to see”.
Segen had received feedback “from a number of installers that had gone through training and did not even touch a product, did not get any hands-on experience”. As a result, the company was keen to make sure that was something its training centre had: “both the dedicated booths and the real-life rooftop in place”.
Segen’s VP of sales, Liz Cammack, says, “The market needs fresh, new, invigorated people to enter it.”
Segen is targeting both school leavers and re- or upskilling the existing workforce. There are currently about 3900 solar PV-trained electricians in the UK, Cammack says, and “electricians need to diversify, plumbing and heat engineers as well, to combine heat pump and solar technology. We are bringing lots of diverse sectors together to make the most of many different renewable technologies”.
She points out that equipping the existing workforce with green skills will also help homeowners who prefer to use their local, trusted installers.
Cammack also says it is important to reach students who have been “getting these messages through school, through college and through university that green tech is the way to go”.
To do this, Galloway explains, Segen has formed a partnership with New City College group, an education provider near the skills academy that has eight colleges, two of which have renewables training centres of their own.
The share of job ads considered green has increased across almost every sector, and the number of green construction jobs has grown by 62.8% since last year.
Making the installers of the future fit for the future
According to Galloway, all of the qualifications for solar installers were written 12 years ago, not featuring “the total decarbonisation solution”. That is, households rarely install a single low-carbon technology, and each addition tends to be integrated into a different platform.
“Interoperability, home energy management systems and bringing everything together in a total decarbonisation solution is something that does not feature in other qualifications”, says Galloway, “so how do you make the installers of the future fit for the future?”
Cammack says Segen is in the unique position of being able to spot the market trends impacting installers and their onsite needs. She adds, “Our training is brand agnostic; it is about the technology and what is around the corner.”
Another standout feature of the centre, Galloway says, is the approach to teaching.
“Our training academy is part of our warehouse. We have partnered with lots of different suppliers, and we have the latest technologies ready for hands-on learning—it is not just reading PowerPoints and taking a test. We are engendering ongoing learning; you apply the knowledge.”
According to Cammack, the decision to build the skills academy shows how Segen is investing in the industry. She says, “It is Segen putting back. We are not just a distributor and box mover; we are much more than that.”
