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).
RES-SKILL aims to strengthen VET provision in the energy sector aimed at coal workers for compatible RES sector jobs, to increase their reemployment opportunities & cover at the same time RES sector’s skills demand. The project’s specific objectives are to:
RES-SKILL's 2nd Project Meeting took place virtually, on the 17th of March, celebrating its first six months.The discussion was focused on the next steps and how to ensure reskilling in this new coal-free era of Europe, with focus on the RES industry.
Our survey has been completed! A big thank you to all the participants & stay tuned for the complete data analysis.
On the 16-19th of November, RES-SKILL Partners had the opportunity to participate in the Just Transition Platform Virtual Week, gathering useful information on the European policies and next steps towards the climate-neutral economy. Hopefully, that information will prove helpful on implementing the actions and outputs of our Project, in the best possible way!
Stara Zagora is working on a project for retraining of workers from the mines. Our colleague Sofia Savova, on behalf of SZREDA, was interviewed by Anna Turlakova for the ARID radio of Stara Zagora (interview in Bulgarian), on the 13th of October 2020.
Stara Zagora talks about the decarbonisation and the RES-SKILL Project. Our colleague Sofia Savova, on behalf of SZREDA, was a guest of the "In the morning with us" TV show of Zagora TV on the 15th of October 2020 (interview in Bulgarian).
The kick-off meeting, held on 12-13 October 2020, marked the official launch of the RES-SKILL project. The kick-off meeting, although initially planned to be held in Athens Greece at the premises of the Project Coordinator (PROMEA), was delivered virtually due to the expansion of the COVID-19 pandemic. All project partners got together to discuss project goals as well as internal procedures for effective collaboration, communication and quality control mechanism, and elaborate on an operational plan for the upcoming work under the 1st semester.
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