Government urged to address electric vehicle skills gap

Recharge UK, the EV arm of the REA (Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology), believes a key issue across the EV industry going forward will be a lack of skilled professionals who are able to install and maintain charging infrastructure or maintain and repair electric vehicles.

As the charging industry is expected to increase chargepoint numbers from over 40,000 charge points today to the Government’s target of 300,000 by 2030, the limited skills pool will be severely under-resourced to manage the rising number of charge point installations and charge point manufacturing. In addition, there will be an increasing workload involved in maintaining charge points once installed.

With Tata recently confirming plans to build a new Gigafactory in the UK and providing up to 4,000 direct jobs, RECHARGE UK is urging the UK Government to address the green EV jobs skills gap. 

This issue was addressed in Recharge UK's new report, which is the EV arm of the REA (Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology), and provides a roadmap of how the industry can accelerate chargepoint deployment to keep up with the growth of EV sales in the UK.

Matthew Adams, Transport Policy Manager the REA (Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology) said: “With the announcement that Tata have agreed to invest £4bn in the UK to build a new gigafactory providing up to 4,000 direct jobs, the recommendations in this report need to be implemented as soon as possible. EV infrastructure from chargepoints to gigafactories must be prioritised in grid connection queues to maximise EV availability and adoption, which will realise the greatest carbon savings.

“It is clear therefore, that the Government must launch a green jobs campaign that provides opportunities for new entrants to the job market and empowers the existing workforce to upskill and retrain for the significant opportunities that are available to them, especially given announcements like Tata’s. RECHARGE UK will be producing a skills report in November which will provide more details on how to harness the existing skilled workforce and young talent who want green jobs across the electric and low carbon fuels sectors.

“By 2030 there is expected to be a shortfall of 25,100 EV-trained TechSafe technicians. The Government should reform the Apprenticeship Levy so that a portion of unspent Levy funds could go toward priority training areas, including electrification, decarbonisation and digitalisation.”

Mark Constable, Chair of Recharge UK, said: “Most of the net zero transition over the next decade won't be delivered by people who are currently working in the clean transport and energy sectors. Instead, it will be largely delivered by people who are currently in other jobs or are still in education - people who are just setting out on their career path.

“So there needs to be a holistic approach to the influx of skills needed across all age ranges and across all backgrounds, to help them get into the industry and ultimately help get the UK over the finishing line."