Global Wind Workforce Outlook 2025-2030
Relying on technicians from abroad is often economically inefficient and may be constrained by immigration policies, while also limiting the potential for local economic benefits and community engagement from the energy transition. Based on interviews with industry experts, The Global Wind Workforce Outlook finds that transactional recruiting services have historically served to fill immediate gaps. Transactional recruiting can help fill positions for senior technicians or technical advisors that are otherwise difficult to hire locally. However, the study finds that they are limited in the number of personnel they can recruit. Continuity and retaining critical knowledge within regional projects is a remaining issue for the local community.
Investing in wind-specific skills reduces reliance on external labour and ensures that the local workforce is prepared for the unique technical requirements of the asset. This is not intended to suggest that immigration is unwelcome – labour mobility and international recruitment have long contributed to energy development worldwide. For example, Indian workers are active in the Middle East, Brazilians across the Americas, and Filipino and Japanese technicians across the APEC region, often sharing training facilities with skilled professionals in Italy, the Netherlands, and France. Such movements help fill immediate workforce needs and enable knowledge exchange across regions. However, while this mobility is valuable in the short term, it cannot fully meet the long-term operational and maintenance needs of local assets, also, it may conflict with the goal of maximising local economic benefits from the energy transition. Wind farms typically have a lifespan of around 20 years, during which ongoing maintenance requires a stable, locally available workforce.
23
Chapter 5: Energy Transition and Workforce Readiness
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs