Foresight Posters – Insights into emerging skill needs
1) Skills needs in the Energy Sector
2) Skill Needs in Waste Management
3) Skills needs in the Manufacturing Sector
4) Skills needs in the Health Care Sector
5) Skill Needs in the Circular Economy
6) Skill Needs in Construction
1) Skills needs in the Energy Sector
Importance of the sector
The energy sector includes activities related to the production and supply of energy – both renewable and non-renewable. This includes the exploration and extraction, transport, distribution, and transmission of energy, as well as sales and support.
The sector is strategically important as it supplies the power for the economy, production, and modern life. In the UK and globally, the energy sector is undergoing fundamental shifts as the sector moves away from non-renewable sources and focuses on renewable forms of energy including solar and wind. This transition is essential if we are to meet global emission targets and ensure a more environmentally sustainable future. The energy transition is expected to generate employment and drive new skill needs.
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2) Skill Needs in Waste Management
Importance of the sector
The waste management sector is a large, evolving field that encompasses activities related to the collection, transport, disposal, processing and recycling of waste. The field is moving beyond the ‘end-of-pipe’ approach which focused on landfill or dumping and now incorporates prevention of waste, reduction, recycling and other forms of waste recovery. The sector is projected to have an increase in the number in employment and is evolving from manual to service-oriented and technologically advanced jobs.
The sector is critically important in the Green Transition, as nearly all its activities are related to environmental protection. The sector has strong links to the public sector, which is often responsible for the collection of municipal waste. Increasingly the waste management sector is collaborating with the manufacturing sector where ‘extended producer responsibility’ requires manufacturers to minimise waste. In Europe, policies like the European Green New Deal are expected to increase employment in the sector by more than 900,000 by 2030.
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3) Skills needs in the Manufacturing Sector
Importance of the sector
The manufacturing sector is a vital part of the UK economy contributing significantly to the overall GDP and is an important source of high-skilled employment. The sector also has important inter-industry linkages as it affects a wide range of both input and output linkages to other areas of the economy. However, the sector is also facing a decline in its overall contribution to the economy and share of employment. Pressure from global competition, digitalisation of the industry, and the emergence of new technologies are reducing overall employment levels while driving up the demand for a highly skilled and adaptable workforce.
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4) Skills needs in the Health Care Sector
Importance of the sector
Healthcare is a critically important sector providing care to those in need. The sector includes a range of occupations from health professionals such as doctors, nurses and therapists, to social work, counselling, business administration and ICT professionals.
Substantial growth in the demand for care work is driven by demographic shifts including an aging population and changing family structures. This demand is outpacing the growth of the care workforce, creating labour and skill shortages in the care sector within the UK and globally.
At the same time, the skills landscape is changing as more technical skills are required to keep pace with technological developments, such as health monitoring. Digital literacy is increasingly important as workers are making use of tablets, smartphones and even robotics. In the UK, the healthcare sector faces a substantial challenge of meeting the long-term demand for individuals working in the healthcare sector.
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5) Skill Needs in the Circular Economy
Importance of the sector
The circular economy turns the traditional linear approach of ‘take, make, waste’ on its head. Instead, the circular economy aims to ensure that products have multiple life cycles wherein materials are recovered, repaired, reused and remade. In this way, the circular economy promotes resource efficiency and reduces waste, which is therefore crucial to achieving sustainability goals. The transition from a linear to a circular economy is expected to create new jobs, transform existing job profiles, and bring in a demand for a blend of technical and transversal skills, including soft skills. Because the reuse, repair, and refurbishment sectors are labour-intensive, these sectors will likely experience substantial growth in the future circular economy. In the UK, the circular economy has the potential to create a substantial number of jobs across various industries, not just the traditional ‘green’ sectors.
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6) Skill Needs in Construction
Importance of the sector
The construction sector is a significant contributor to the economy, generating economic output and employment opportunities both in the UK and globally. The construction sector includes the skilled trades, civil and other engineering disciplines and architecture. In the UK, the construction sector accounted for 6.2% of jobs and 6.6% of total UK economic output. The sector is essential in in infrastructure development and often serves as a catalyst for economic growth.
Environmental and sustainability concerns, digital technologies, new production processes, and demographic transitions are driving substantial changes within the construction sector. These changes are creating new demand, replacement demand, and higher skill requirements. Given the scale of these transformations, the workforce will need to be agile and possess a diverse set of skills.
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7) Skill Needs in Agriculture
Importance of the sector
Agriculture is important. The practice of cultivating natural resources for the production of foodstuffs is essential to sustaining human life. In many countries, including the UK, employment has been in decline. But because many people are expected to retire from agriculture over the next ten years or so there will be many job opening. Traditionally, agriculture has employed people working outside in traditional, manual tasks linked to crop cultivation and animal husbandry. This is changing. Information is provided on how employment and skill demand is likely to change over the medium-term. This information has been obtained from a variety of foresight studies conducted across Europe based on skill projections and the use of data mining techniques in addition to views obtained from experts.