While the electrification of transportation is widely seen as the way forward to a sustainable future, there is still a notable skills gap.
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By Johnny Sharp
The ever-growing demand for electric vehicles, and the infrastructure they require, means the industry is in pressing need of engineers who can facilitate these advances. Recent data released by The Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) predicted a shortfall of 3,000 technicians capable of servicing and repairing the growing numbers of EVs by 2031, a gap that it predicts will reach 16,000 by 2035.
If this scenario is to be avoided, widespread upskilling will be required, as well as a drive to recruit skilled new technicians to keep pace with the growth in electrified transportation.
Richard Lane, Head of Digital Transformation at Coventry University, has seen the skills gap widening in recent years. “Traditionally, with internal combustion engineers, you would have had apprenticeship schemes creating a continuous flow of new incumbents coming in and working alongside the experienced engineers.
“But in the UK particularly, it’s an economy based around a lot of smaller businesses, who are competing for those with existing skill sets rather than developing them [into] new employees. We’ve not been far-sighted enough about these problems emerging,” he explains.
If electric vehicles are going to continue to be seen as the best route to decarbonisation, improvements in sustainable batteries may well be key.
“There is a need to upskill existing professionals and train them on the capabilities and implications of deploying new technology, in particular batteries,” says Professor Roberto Palacin, Professor of Transport Futures at Newcastle University.
“But also, battery materials and battery management systems. We need to understand and provide skills on aspects such the quality and safety of batteries, and we also need to think about the life cycle of a battery – e.g. what are the second life opportunities when you perhaps, move on from a transport application? And can we safely and economically efficiently separate all the different components, reusing materials?” he says.
Professor Palacin sees training around these areas as increasingly coming back to data management. “For a long time now, even before the advent of EVs, cars and other forms of transportation have become increasingly defined by the use of semiconductors and other digitally-enabling components. So, it’s data analytics and data science skills that are urgently required across the board to really maximise the opportunities arising from the transition to electrification.
“Only through understanding the data – and the tools that can manage it – can current and future industry roles be fulfilled, whether it’s design, manufacture, maintenance or any other aspect,” he states.
For Palacin, it’s also going to be crucial to have the right skills to support the process: “Decarbonisation requires a multifaceted approach. Understanding the different components of what is happening, particularly for transport, an element of demand management, understanding resilience and the interdependencies between all the critical systems, availability of clean power, and the role of different technologies. All this is required if we are to decarbonise transport effectively.”
Lane sees clear career pathways as an important factor in attracting the right skilled people into the sector.
“At the Electric Revolution Skills Hub (a digital platform providing a national skills resource), we understood from our initial research that the ‘on-ramp’ to a career in electrification was not clear. So, we thought: ‘OK, we can get everything together so we’re better be able to signpost people where the opportunities are.’
“That’s going to encourage younger people coming into the industry, and it’s also going to encourage mid-career internal combustion engineers to look at retraining and reworking their skill sets.”
It's not going to happen overnight, though, and Lane can see historic parallels here. “If you look back at around 15 years ago, there was a lot of talk about the digital skills gap, across education and industry, yet it still took quite a lot of time before we got to a point where we had that underpinning of digital skills,” he concludes.
If the same time lag is to be avoided when it comes to electrification, recruiting and training for transport’s future needs to start now.
Image: EV engine in detail; credit: Alamy.
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