Green Skills Solutions for the North East from Newcastle College

For over a decade now, Newcastle College has led the way in green skills training for the North East’s energy sector. Here, Principal Scott Bullock explains how the College focuses on producing a workforce ready for tomorrow’s emerging jobs.

For those of us based in the North East, it comes as no surprise that our region is at the centre of the UK’s green energy revolution. Offshore wind and renewable energy is one of our fastest-growing industries and has been a priority area for continued investment and growth for many years, and our target to reach Net Zero by 2030 is 20 years sooner than the government’s national target.

As we edge closer to that target date, we all have a responsibility to become more sustainable; especially businesses and educators like us.

As the region’s largest further education college, and the UK’s largest provider of HE in an FE setting, our aim is to create the workforce of the future. As part of NCG, the country’s largest group of colleges, we are working towards a number of environmental commitments that will support our goal of becoming the most sustainable college group in the UK. In addition, we are ensuring our students are educated on the issues of sustainability and climate change and have recently appointed a Sustainability and Curriculum Officer to ensure the curriculum we teach, in all subjects, has sustainability embedded so that all of our learners can be prepared for the future.

It is our role to ensure that the 17,000 new jobs expected to be created within green energy can be filled by skilled people with the right knowledge and experience, and I am proud to say that Newcastle College has been leading the way in green skills training for the region’s energy sector for over a decade now.

Our award-winning Energy Academy opened in Wallsend in 2012, delivering advanced training in offshore renewables, and subsea and renewable energy engineering. The Academy is recognised as a leading training provider in the North East and provides unique opportunities for our learners to gain practical, hands-on experience in world-class facilities, along with the knowledge and skills they will need to succeed in their future career.

Our energy and engineering curriculum delivered at the Energy Academy includes courses for 16–18-year-olds, alongside degrees and part-time courses for adults.  We are not only training the next generation of engineers; we’re upskilling and reskilling those already working in the energy sector to keep up with the changing needs of our industry leaders. As we begin moving towards Net Zero, this type of training is crucial to those experienced engineers within the oil and gas industries, so they can transition quickly to roles within renewable and clean energy.

It is our partnerships and working relationships with industry that really shape our Energy Academy and our curriculum is constantly under review to make sure it is meeting the current and future skills needs of local businesses in the sector. We meet regularly with an industry advisory board to find out what the latest developments are in the sector, as well as the skills gaps they are facing now, or foresee in the future, as technology plays an ever-increasing role in the industry. This employer-led approach to our curriculum means we can focus on ensuring that our qualifications are meaningful and make our students employable.

Since 2021 we have been in partnership with local fabrication specialist WD Close, delivering apprenticeships in Welding and Fabrication, which are vital to supporting the energy engineering industry and its supply chain. So far, more than 40 apprentices have joined through the partnership, and WD Close has committed to training over 100 apprentices in the next five years. In June 2022, the partnership’s first female apprentice Courtney Newton was named The Welding Institute’s Apprentice of the Year. In addition, WD Close has recruited six graduates from Newcastle College University Centre’s energy and engineering degrees, where they are working as part of a team leading ground-breaking projects for the region. 

By joining forces with some of the industry’s biggest leaders, students at our Energy Academy benefit from access to state-of-the-art training facilities. This includes one of the world’s most advanced immersive Hybrid Reality (iHR) wind turbine training platforms, installed at our Energy Academy in 2019 thanks to our relationship with Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult. Most recently, following an award of £2million from the Office for Students (OfS) to invest into STEM facilities, a decision to invest in an autonomous robot, industrial drone, a subsea inspection Remote Operated Vehicle and Electric Vehicle charging equipment, was made in conjunction with local industry leaders including Port of Blyth, ORE Catapult, and the Subsea North East group of companies.

Outside of our existing training on offer, we’re also involved in a number of initiatives that will see new training developed specifically to meet the needs of the North East’s green sector. Right now, we’re leading a regional research project in partnership with Newcastle University, Education Partnerships North East, ORE Catapult and the North of Tyne Combined Authority, that will ultimately support the development and delivery of courses, and the green technology requirements to meet the future skills needs of the green sector.

The results will provide a detailed picture of skills needs and job opportunities in both the short and medium term, along with foresight of longer-term opportunities, enabling the development of specific green technology training and linking learners with emerging job opportunities, providing local employers with a skilled and talented workforce.

Importantly, the programme will also tackle the issue of attracting young talent into the sector, developing teaching collateral and providing support to schools to embed green technology into their current STEM programmes and encourage more young people to consider a career in the sector.

We’re also part of a regional initiative that has been awarded £2.4million from the Department for Education’s Strategic Development Fund and will also look to develop and deliver courses to meet the region’s skills needs in green power and green transport. Partners of the project include other local colleges and training providers, who will work alongside industry and employer representative bodies such as North East England Chamber of Commerce, North East Automotive Alliance and Energi Coast to develop courses in battery manufacture, vehicle electrification, micro renewables and offshore wind while investing in specialist, technical equipment to support teaching, training and delivery.

As new technologies emerge, as our target of Net Zero gets closer, and as new jobs become available in the industry, it is vital that we continue to work collaboratively with employers and other regional partners to ensure we are developing the qualifications of the future and supporting our region (and the rest of the country) to become cleaner, greener and more sustainable.

Proven by our history in delivering (and leading the way in) skills training for the green energy sector, I know that Newcastle College is more than ready to meet the emerging and increased demands of the sector.