Offshore Training Scheme amendments briefing for the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill

A Friends of the Earth Scotland, Platform and RMT briefing for MPs ahead of voting on amendments in the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill.

Tackling the climate crisis requires a rapid transition away from fossil fuels and into renewable energy. However, the workers who are already facing the effects of industry decline are not seeing any firm plan for a managed transition that would create opportunities and remove barriers to entering renewable energy industries.

Offshore workers in oil and gas hold the skills and expertise needed if we are to successfully transition to a renewable energy sector. However, the training regime in the energy sector is fragmented with separate training bodies responsible for setting standards in different parts of the energy sector. As a result, offshore workers cannot readily have their existing skills and training recognised elsewhere in the energy sector.

Amendments (NC14, NC15 and amendment 11) to the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill would serve to create a new Offshore Training Scheme, which would rectify this situation by aligning training and skills recognition where possible across roles and sectors, recognising that regular training is essential to health and safety, and that there may be sector specific top-ups required.