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Employer Resources

REAP: The Renewable Energy Apprenticeships Programme

BWEA has been facilitating collaborative work between stakeholders to develop a tailored Renewable Energy Apprenticeships Programme to aid industry in nurturing home grown talent. The ambition is for a cohort of large wind energy service technicians to start on this new tailored apprenticeships programme in September 2010.

These pages document work to date on developing REAP, please read through and get in touch if you feel your company could benefit from taking on apprentices in the future!

Background - Why are we looking to develop a REAP?

Industry skills gap analysis highlights demand for technicians

In October 2008 – the Bain Report commissioned by BWEA to analyse the labour market for the wind and marine industries was released. This Report provided not only an overview of the workforce of today, documenting where employers are finding it difficult to recruit; but also provided projections for the scale of potential employment opportunities for the future. One of the key findings of this report was that employers are already finding it difficult to find recruits with the right skills and experience for technician level roles. The labour market projections suggest that this is a key area for scaling up recruitment for the future. Between 10,000-20,000 construction, installation and O&M staff will be needed to support the British Wind Energy Industry by 2020*. The evidence presented highlighted technician training as a key ‘skills gap’.

* Bain & Company (2008) ‘Employment opportunities and challenges in the context of rapid industry growth’
O&M staff demand by 2020 – Low industry growth scenario: 6,700 O&M; dynamic case projection: 10,800.

What exactly are modern apprenticeships?

An Apprenticeship allow individuals to train whilst they are in employment, allowing companies to home grow talent. As employees, apprentices work alongside experienced staff to gain job-specific skills. Off-the-job, usually on a day release basis, apprentices receive training with a local training provider such as a college/ private training centre.

Apprenticeships can improve an organisation’s productivity and profitability, and are an effective means of filling skills gaps in current and future workforces. There are many business benefits, from low training costs to increased staff retention.

Where a nationally recognised framework exists, Businesses receive financial assistance from Government towards the cost of training of Apprenticeships. Most apprentices are employed by business and paid a salary that reflects their skills, experience, age and ability. This meeting is about setting out such a national framework.

Exploring how to address this skills gap?

The first Apprenticeships Roundtable for the wind and marine energy industries

In April 2009, all BWEA member companies were invited to an Apprenticeships Roundtable meeting; alongside representatives of several skills bodies that could potentially be involved with the development of an Apprenticeships route into the wind and marine renewable energy industries. At this meeting EU Skills took responsibility for leading future co-ordination on renewable energy skills amongst the skills bodies.

There was agreement around this Roundtable that there is demand for apprentices amongst the employers, and that developing a broad renewable energy apprenticeship framework should be a long term goal. To answer the most pressing needs of the large scale renewable energy generation industries it was concluded that an initial pilot framework should focus on training wind energy service technicians. Whereas sector attraction does not pose a great challenge for employers; there is an absence of clear up-skilling and re-skilling pathways for those with the ambition to work in this area of the renewable energy sector. In addition the pool of people in the UK with the core engineering skills that form the foundation of technician services is narrow. Consequently the supply of suitable candidates for wind service technician jobs is limited.

A broad road-map to building an apprenticeships framework was set out at the roundtable. The process is complex, but Fig. 1 aims to help clarify the pathway to developing a new framework.

Actions since REAP Roundtable I

Since the Apprenticeships Roundtable I. a number of small focused meetings have taken place between EU Skills and employers in the industry.

  1. Starting point for action: Occupational Functional Mapping for the renewable energy industry.

    As a first step EU Skills has started working on an occupational functional map for the renewable energy industries. ‘Wind energy technicians’ are now included and defined in the occupational functional map.

    The definition of a ‘wind energy technician’ came through consulting both on-shore and off-shore service technicians working in the field.
  2. Developing National Occupational Standards for wind energy Technicians

    Over the past year NOS for power generation, transmission and distribution have been developed through input from companies in the traditional power sector*. The new NOS they have produced is a good foundation for what is needed for the renewable energy industries specifically.

    To produce a working draft of wind energy technician NOS for industry-wide scrutiny, a meeting between EU Skills and Siemens was set up by BWEA. Together they reviewed existing NOS and made adjustments to it. An invitation to review this draft NOS was sent out to all company representatives that had attended the first Apprenticeships Roundtable as well as other BWEA members who employ wind service technicians. The meeting was relatively poorly attended but was nonetheless very productive. A new draft of the NOS was produced off the back of the consultation incorporating the needs of industry from a broader perspective. With only four companies present it was deemed important though by all to re-open the opportunity for other companies in industry to engage on NOS development. Since this meeting around 15 companies have become active contributors to developing the NOS through a series of focus group meetings that took place during August and September of 2009.

    * The Power Sector Skills Strategy Group and EU Skills have both been reviewing NOS for the electricity

Apprenticeships Roundtable II

The second Apprenticeships Roundtable was convened on the 30th of September 2009. The meeting bought together employers the SSCs -collectively represented by EU Skills and a representative from the National Apprenticeships Service.

Apprenticeships Roundtable II saw the first wind service technician NOS finalized. Following the NOS consultation process final comments on the NOS headings for wind energy service technicians were taken on board by EU Skills.

The potential to pilot the apprenticeships programme in spring 2010 was discussed, however, after careful consideration the collective decision was made not to go ahead. The conclusion was that having a fully refined framework in place to suit the specific needs of industry is crucial before any industry employees are put through a test-run of the scheme.

n ambitious timeframe for action to deliver the first wind energy specific REAP was introduced. Maintaining momentum and collaborative engagement throughout 2009/10 is key. The next milestone for the REAP group is to get their organizations on the whole to commit to the further development of the programme. The BWEA31 Skills Summit was discussed as a means to this end. The aim of the Summit in part is to raise the profile of the REAP agenda amongst key stakeholder groups.

BWEA31 Skills Summit:

Renewable Energy Apprenticeships Programme Sector Skills Accord

The BWEA31 Skills Summit for wind and marine energy – convened on the 21 st of October 2009 was the first of its kind in the UK for any industry.

The BWEA31 Skills Summit successfully brought together over 30 senior stakeholders from industry, skills bodies and supportive organisations to set in motion a roadmap of activities and responsibilities for the creation of the skilled workforce necessary to deliver the UK’s renewable energy ambitions. One of two roundtable discussions on the day focused on the ‘Renewable Energy Apprenticeships Programme Accord’. This Skills Accord sets out the ongoing voluntary commitments for ensuring that a robust REAP is developed in a timely fashion. Please click the ‘BWEA31 Skills Summit’ tab or the right hand side to find out what commitments were made, who the signatories are and full details of how your organization can sign up.

National Occupational Standard headings for wind energy service technicians – Officially approved

The Skills Summit saw the sign off of NOS for large scale wind energy service technicians. These are the first wind specific NOS in the UK. This sets in motion the next phase of the project – industry working together with an Awarding Body to set out the content of a wind industry Technical Certificate.

Unit Development Technical Workshops

The beginning of 2010 has seen a transition in lead responsibility - from EU Skills being central in developing the National Occupational Standards; to City & Guilds, the awarding body taking the next steps to develop the detailed content of the wind service technician competency requirements. Following two technical workshops in January, the Level 2 (not authorised) and Level 3 (authorised technician) qualifications structures have been revised and finalised. The workshops brought together service technicians from 9 member companies, assuring that the consultation has remained inclusive of broad industry perspectives.

Apprenticeships Roundtable III

REAP Roundtable III aimed at discussing the nuances of implementation for employers. Access to funding was explained by funding body representatives from England, Scotland and Wales; recruitment, assessment and employer responsibility issues were covered. One important issue raised around funding, was that for health and safety reasons, demand from employers will be predominantly for training and up-skilling apprentices in the 19+ age category. BWEA is assuring that a strong overlap is being coordinated between Health & Safety and broader training agendas. Industry’s commitment to the health, safety and wellbeing of existing and future industry employees stands strong.

Following BWEA’s completion of research into demand for wind service technician apprentices, it is likely that the first cohort of such trainees will consist of 20-30 employees.

Following the National Skills Academy for Power’s (NSAP) anticipated approval it is hoped that it will take on the task of acting as a facilitator between the sector’s employers and the skills provider network. BWEA has had strategic meetings with NSAP and the closely related Power Sector Skills Strategy Group (PSSSG) and has drafted a joint work plan on engagement.

Time for you to get involved as a training provider

In February, publicly funded vocational training providers from amongst the membership were invited to a workshop organised to inform colleges of the developments to date and the potential to get involved.

If you would like to put your organisation forward to be involved in the initial cohorts of level 3 wind service technician apprentices, anticipated for Sept/Oct 2010, e-mail: f.kemenes@renewable-uk.com for details of the process. The submitted introduction to your college that outlines your capability to become involved will then be passed on to the employer working group to inform businesses of what organisations they can potentially set up working relationships with.

Time for your company to get involved..

If you are interested in the work documented on these pages please get in touch, contact:

Fruzsina Kemenes
Skills and Education Policy Officer
f.kemenes@renewable-uk.com