UK Offshore Wind Sector Deal Out Thursday

The UK’s new Offshore Wind Sector Deal will be issued on Thursday, 7 March, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy said.

As reported earlier, the new Sector Deal has established a target of reaching the connected offshore wind capacity of 30GW and delivering one-third of the UK’s electricity by 2030.

Through a new skills package for offshore wind employees, the new deal will aim to increase the number of jobs in the industry to 27,000 by 2030, up from 7,200 today.

The deal will also set out steps to achieve at least 33% of women in the total offshore wind workforce by 2030, with the ambition of reaching 40%. Currently, 16% of the offshore wind workforce are women.

The Sector Deal will introduce an Offshore Energy Passport, recognised outside of the UK, which will be developed for offshore wind workers to transfer their skills and expertise to other offshore renewable and oil and gas industries – allowing employees to work seamlessly across different offshore sectors

Further work with further education institutions will be carried out to develop a sector-wide curriculum, and targets for increasing the number of apprentices in the sector later this year will be set out.

”The move to a cleaner, greener economy is outlined in our modern Industrial Strategy as one of the greatest economic opportunities of our time. Working with the offshore wind industry, I want to ensure that women and young people benefit from this sea-change,” UK Energy and Clean Growth Minister Claire Perry said.

”This deal could support a tripling of jobs over the next few decades and it is exciting to see that the industry is encouraging my children’s generation – the UK’s workforce of the future – to propel themselves into the industry, giving them the skills they need to thrive in the sector.”