Cogent Skills, the employer-led skills body for the UK's science and technology industries, has published new research designed to help industry plan ahead for the workforce needed to deliver the UK's hydrogen and carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) programme.
The Hydrogen and Carbon Capture Workforce Readiness report introduces the Regional Workforce Resilience Index, a first-of-its-kind, standardised UK-wide diagnostic built around 39 priority occupations, assessing workforce capability, training pipelines, industrial context and delivery conditions across every UK nation and region.
Hydrogen and CCUS are central to the UK's clean energy transition and strengthening domestic energy security, with projects planned across industrial clusters, ports and infrastructure sites throughout the UK. The research puts workforce planning on an equal footing with capital investment and project delivery from the outset, rather than treating it as a downstream consideration.
The Index gives industry and delivery partners:
- A consistent, evidence-based view of workforce conditions, replacing a patchwork of local assumptions with a single shared reference point.
- Early visibility of where local labour markets are best placed to support rapid mobilisation, and where targeted, preventative support will have the greatest impact.
- A practical tool, alongside an interactive dashboard, that can be used throughout the life of the programme to track conditions as projects are commissioned and move through delivery.
- A shared evidence base that skills bodies, training providers, mayoral combined authorities, the devolved administrations and industry can all work from, reducing duplication of effort across the skills system.
Justine Fosh, Group Chief Executive of Cogent Skills, said:
“This research is a genuinely forward-looking move. Hydrogen and carbon capture will only be delivered by people, and workforce planning needs to sit alongside capital and project delivery from day one, not be treated as an afterthought. This insight gives industry and the skills system a shared, UK-wide evidence base to plan with confidence and target support where it will have the most impact.”
Cogent Skills developed the Index and report in consultation with the Hydrogen and Carbon Capture Skills Partnership stakeholder community (formerly known as the Hydrogen Skills Alliance) and through direct employer engagement across the hydrogen and CCUS value chains, ensuring the evidence reflects how workforces are organised and deployed in practice.
The Index and dashboard will continue to support industry as hydrogen and CCUS projects are commissioned and progress through construction and into operation, providing an ongoing, up-to-date picture of workforce conditions across the UK.
The Hydrogen and Carbon Capture Workforce Readiness report was developed for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and funded by the UK Government. You can access a copy of the report here .
