Government plans announced last week for a massive expansion of offshore wind farms will provide a boost to recruitment in the sector, according to Hays Energy.

On Friday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the £100bn project, which would see the construction of 6,400 wind turbines at nine sites around the coast by 2020, and the creation of up to 70,000 jobs.

Eliot Davies, operations director at Hays Energy, welcomed the announcement. Davies says: “This investment will help us to meet our CO² emissions targets for 2020 and create employment opportunities within the UK.

It is likely that most employment opportunities will be at the design and build stages of these projects; at the design stages we expect work to be created for professionals in environmental impact assessment, civils, electrical and mechanical design and commercial engineering. At the construction stage, we expect to see demand for civils, mechanical and electrical professionals, construction managers and support staff.

“The absence of turbine manufacturers in Britain should not affect the number of opportunities available to the British public, given that most design consultancies and contractors have a presence in the UK.

We are, however, hopeful that companies with a UK base will be successful in winning this work from the consortiums already announced. The UK has the necessary talent to fill any roles created and any difficulties could be resolved with the transfer of skills from the oil & gas industry.”