The UK will not meet its ambitious agenda for a carbon Net Zero economy by 2050, unless we dramatically increase battery technology skills, according to Steve Doyle, CEO of EVera Recruitment, Europe’s only dedicated electric vehicle and battery industry recruitment consultancy.
Steve Doyle said, ‘This country will not meet its carbon free goals and future electrification targets unless we clearly focus on creating the right skills in the battery industry. We have made a great start and we have some highly talented people and businesses already contributing, but it is already clear that we are facing a major skills gap in order to capitalise and prevent key industries moving away. We have to develop homegrown talent.
‘It is imperative that we steer youngsters into the right STEM subjects, enticing them with a promising career in an exciting and growing industry. I talk to over 500 school children every year about how exciting it can be and so we need to harness that enthusiasm across the country. We also need to educate at a graduate level by creating many more bespoke battery engineering degree courses, such as the one being created by WMG, University of Warwick. Finally, we should have the ambition to retain existing engineers, providing top-up courses for them to acquire new skills and help shape our electrified future.’
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged that the UK will reduce all carbon emissions in the next three decades and has published a green agenda. The government is also mandating the phasing out of manufacture of petrol and diesel internal combustion engines from 2030, all targets that require huge uptake in battery technologies for powering vehicles and energy storage.
Steve Doyle was invited and appointed to the advisory board also including Bentley, Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover, Britishvolt and Envision to advise WMG & Warwick of University to design and implement an apprenticeship degree for Battery Engineering.