Powering Progress Together: Scotland's offshore wind skills priorities and action plan

Ministerial Foreword

Gillian Martin MSP, Cabinet Secretary For Energy & Climate Action

Scotland’s future prosperity will be built on renewable energy, with offshore wind at its centre. It offers a once-in-a-generation chance to drive economic growth, foster innovation and create high quality jobs across the country.

Offshore wind is already delivering real and lasting benefits to communities across Scotland. The Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm is a clear example, combining the generation of clean electricity with project investment in the Highlands and Moray. Since becoming fully operational in 2019, it has had the capacity to power up to 450,000 homes at any one time, created long term skilled jobs with up to 90 personnel now safely operating the wind farm, established a long-term operations and maintenance base at Wick Harbour, and provided £6 million in community benefits.

Over the next decade, the sector can support thousands more skilled roles, from the hands-on work of building and maintaining turbines and offshore structures, to the engineering and design of the systems that keep them safe, efficient and connected to the grid. These careers can inspire young people, provide security for families and open new opportunities for those moving into the sector as part of a just transition.

Realising these opportunities means building on and expanding the excellent training provision already in place as well as testing out innovative new approaches. We need to continue to work in partnership across private and public sectors to ensure that we have enough people with the right skills at the right time to realise the benefits we all want to see.

Earlier this year, the Scottish Government convened the Offshore Wind Skills Short-Life Working Group with industry and public sector partners to identify the priority job roles for the sector, agree a common set of objectives, and commit to additional actions to be taken forward from now into 2026/27. This plan marks the first step in a long-term, coordinated programme of joint work to position Scotland as the world’s leading destination for developing the offshore wind workforce of the future.