Understanding offshore wind workforce requirements in a new market
Last year, I helped a deliver an interesting project: Socioeconomic impacts and skills development for Indian offshore wind, with support from ClimateHub India Advisors. The work was both interesting and challenging and sparked some important reflections.
Often people see realising economic impacts and skill development as two distinct challenges. In reality, they are intertwined. Without the necessary skills development only a small part of potential economic gains will be realised. Having a correctly skilled workforce will enable larger local supply chains to develop, both in scale and value. We certainly found this to be the case in the context of offshore wind in India.
To understand the key offshore wind workforce requirements in terms of capabilities and skills, you need to estimate the how many jobs will be created and the types of roles required. This is driven by the expected scale of deployment and the capability of the local supply chain. For a potential new offshore wind market, there is no existing domestic wind industry or supply chain to use as a benchmark. This makes direct analysis difficult. To address this, we:
- Developed a deployment projection of when and where capacity is likely to be deployed. We based on our understanding of the Indian market and project lifecycles, and
- Developed two different supply chain scenarios to assess potential outcomes, based on India’s relative capabilities. One assumes reliance on global supply chains and the other a development of a domestic supply chain.
This provided the basis for understanding the scale, timing and supply chain categories of jobs required. With this defined, it is important to assess India’s starting point to identify gaps. However, with no commercial projects, there is limited country data to establish a baseline. To address, we mapped international benchmarks (e.g. IRENA data and GWO frameworks) to existing domestic industry capabilities. We focused on those sectors with similar skills, such as onshore wind, marine, and oil and gas. By assessing existing training provision across where supply chain activity is likely, we built a clear picture of existing capacity.
In economies like India, many offshore wind roles will require new, sector-specific knowledge. Adopting global best practice and drawing on experience from sectors with similar skills, such as onshore wind and oil and gas, provides a strong foundation. Strategic partnerships, targeted investment, and supportive policy can help build capacity and close capability gaps.
It is important to recognise that offshore wind requires a wide range of workforce skills. Many of these exist in other parts of the economy. India has a strong, transferrable skills base in construction, engineering, maritime, energy, and professional sectors. The key challenge here is to develop the right skills at the right time and reduce barriers for workers and companies to enter the market
Understanding the scale of workforce demand is not straightforward. The picture changes depending on the stage of the offshore wind market and evolves as supply chain activity grows. Skills demand is dynamic and multifaceted. Addressing this requires a consistent assessment framework with continuous stakeholder engagement with government, industry and other stakeholders as the industry develops.
Throughout the project, we engaged closely with stakeholders to consult, challenge, and build understanding of the picture as it stands. We combined practical experience with forward-looking assumptions to develop a robust and credible estimate of the economic benefits of offshore wind development in India.
