The decarbonisation of the EU27 is expected
to result in the loss of ~76k workers’ jobs in coal mines & plants until
2025 (154k until 2030). Partnership countries (GR, DE, AT, RO, BG, PL) will be
particularly affected, currently representing 81% of the total EU coal
workforce (190k). At the same time, a surge of jobs in the Renewable Energy
Sources (RES) sector is already happening and expected to continue and perhaps grow.
Due to similar skillset, coal workers are ideally fitted for covering unfilled
positions in the RES sector. The skills of coal workers (e.g. durability in
hazardous environments, employment of manual & sophisticated technologies)
are sought after in the solar photovoltaic (PV) & wind industries, being
particularly transferable to the occupations of solar PV installer/technician & wind-farm/wind turbine technician. Thus, coal
workers can avoid the lengthy training (~2 years) currently on offer by
existing VET courses, requiring only a short course or on-the-job training.
VET education & the labour market are
expected to be challenged by the spike of coal workers seeking reemployment in
the near future and the surge in unfiled positions in RES.
Reskilling initiatives for the transition of coal workers to the RES sector are
currently extremely limited, with only 1 EU country offering relevant C-VET
courses (DE; ~2,5 years degree). Job demand in the EU27 RES sector is growing
by 304k new jobs/year until 2030 – 60% expected in wind & 24% in solar PV.
In particular, the supply of new RES sector jobs in partnership countries
could absorb up to 90% of current coal-related jobs. For example, DE, PL &
GR are leading on offshore wind potential; certain DE coal regions have the
highest potentially induced employment for wind energy (~16k new jobs) &
rooftop-mounted solar PV systems (~3k).
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