Source: Energy & Management Powernews, July 11, 2022
It's not just sluggish approval processes that are slowing down the energy transition and climate targets. The shortage of skilled workers hinders the construction of new wind turbines, solar plants and power lines as well.
The labor market figures are worrying - especially if one holds goals and timelines against it, which this federal government has set itself in climate protection. Especially in the field of renewable energy, where in recent years employees had to be released, which are now missing in the back and front. "We have dismissed 40,000 employees, of which we knew that we would need them urgently for the energy turnaround," Hermann Albers, president of the German Wind Energy Association, had sharply criticized the Merkel government last year.
151,300 jobs in engineering and computer science professions remained unfilled in this country in the first quarter of the year. This was calculated by the Association of German Engineers and the Institute of the German Economy. In North Rhine-Westphalia it is almost 25,000, in Bavaria even 39,000. Klaus Josef Lutz, President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for Munich and Upper Bavaria, sees more than 600,000 unfilled positions in the Free State by the end of the decade. Yet he certainly has hopes that the energy transition and the associated need for investment and innovation could be a sufficiently meaningful topic to inspire young professionals: "Germany would definitely have the potential to claim innovation leadership here." And for once, no one is getting in the way: "It is a generally agreed goal to reduce geopolitical dependence on finite and environmentally harmful resources," Lutz said in an article for the IHK magazine.
Admittedly, that gives us a bit of hope. But what concrete starting points are there to solve the problems of the energy transition industry? Let's first look at facts and causes. The Association of Electrical Engineering sees the following reasons for the "gap of dramatic proportions" between graduate numbers and the growing demand for electrical engineers: demographic change, lack of interest in electrical engineering studies, problems in successfully training students, and a low quota of women of only 17%. The interest in E-technology, so the VDE, sinks for years, while the computer science has ever more inlet.
That more women must be inspired not only for engineering, but generally for technical occupations, over it prevails just as broad consensus as over the meaningfulness of the climatic protection. The KfW Bankengruppe's Skilled Workers Barometer also advises countermeasures through immigration and simplified recognition of foreign vocational qualifications. This demand is underpinned by the finding that, according to a survey, 44% of the companies surveyed stated that they had been hampered in their business activities by a shortage of skilled workers.
Advertising for new recruits is becoming increasingly imaginative
It is hardly surprising, given such figures, that companies in the energy sector are becoming more intensive and imaginative in their advertising for new recruits. "Intensive" can be understood to mean efforts to reach out even to students in early semesters or to give schoolchildren real insights into the various technical professions. Expanding the range of training and continuing education are also major topics. The German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water (DVGW), for example, has developed concepts for communicating its know-how on hydrogen, the energy transition's hope, to women and men. Under the motto "Zeit für einen Stoffwech2el" (time for a change of substance), the topic is to be intensively incorporated into vocational training. Chairman of the Board Prof. Gerald Linke points to the high technical and safety challenges involved in operating hydrogen plants.
Employers such as Stadtwerke Düsseldorf are trying to attract young talent with unusual ideas. Under the motto "Your next level 2.0", young people are invited - remotely or on site - to play games on a game console with a trainer or recruiter. Getting to know each other in a relaxed atmosphere instead of at a stiff job interview. The campaigns of the past years were also characterized by ingenuity: In "ausbildunglaeuft," "azubianbord" and "ausbildungsvollabgefahren," potential career starters and their potential superiors learned more about each other while endurance running along the Rhine, in a pedal boat or on an indoor bicycle. The municipal utility on the lake in Baden-Württemberg turned the tables - and applied to the young talent itself. Which, after all, reflects the real circumstances. Consequently, the utility from Lake Constance does not need an application portfolio from the interested party; an initial contact can be made via the homepage.
However, there are also completely different ways than intensifying the search for personnel: namely, replacing them with non-human solutions. Robots, drones, artificial intelligence, increased digitalization of processes are the keywords. The walking robot Basti, for example, has been contracted by Bayernwerk. Basti - which stands for Bayernwerk, safety, technology, innovation - will in future be on duty together with colleagues in the unmanned substations of the Regensburg-based Eon subsidiary. Basti will not only carry out regular inspections, he can also be activated in the event of an error message and check up on things. It happens far too often that an inspection team that has been set in motion finds that only a branch has blown into the plant and is now lying on the ground. The robot eyes can show that to the human colleague in the control center as well. The mechanics do not have to move out because of this, they can take care of more important things.
Modern technologies and gamifiction
A lot of money, time and personnel deployment can be saved by inspection flights with drones. In the fall, Bayernwerk plans to launch the "NEXT.Sieaero" project and, in cooperation with Siemens, get a powerful flying machine from the Austrian company Schiebel into the air to inspect high-voltage lines and pylons. With the help of AI, all components such as insulators and bolted connections, as well as the surrounding area, are to be compared with target states. 100 GW of data per flight kilometer will be collected and processed by multi-sensor heads. Costly helicopter flights could soon be a thing of the past.
Naturally, even the agile robot and the drone with their high-tech equipment do not work alone before themselves. For them in particular, well-trained personnel are again needed. "New technologies such as augmented & virtual reality, robotics, drones or 3D printing and digitization make certain previous activities partially and completely substitutable," says the Baden-Württemberg-based EnBW Group, for example. But: "As job profiles change, employees increasingly need new skills." That's why the company offers appropriate training courses. Last year, four new training centers were opened with the subsidiary Netze BW. Modern technologies are used here, as are gamifiction approaches for learning through play. In addition, the company - like many others - wants to make itself attractive to skilled workers and young talent with part-time and home-office offerings.
Author: Günter Drewnitzky
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