A majority of the UK’s leading energy experts say that the UK energy industry is facing a serious skills shortage, according to a new survey launched today by Doosan Babcock.

The Doosan Babcock ‘Energy Pulse’ survey, which polled 500 UK energy experts, revealed that half of industry respondents felt that skills shortages were due to a lack of government support or investment.

Amongst students, the highest percentage (47%) felt that a better awareness of competing sectors was the most significant reason for the skills shortage in the sector; this was followed by a feeling that there were poor career prospects for engineers (41%).

Iain Miller, chief executive of Doosan Babcock, says: “To put this in context, the energy sector is competing for the same skills that will be needed for the 2012 Olympics and other infrastructure projects so we really need a clear commitment to skills within the energy sector if we are to support the necessary new build and retrofits needed to avert a generation gap.”

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