UK
  • Minister Shanks delivered the keynote speech at a parliamentary pre-launch of the CCSA’s Workforce and Skills paper, featuring case studies from across the CCUS sector.
  • The event brought together 18 apprentices, graduates, scholars, interns and industry leaders from across the CCUS sector to highlight the new opportunities for careers in the industry.
  • The first projects are already delivering new jobs, but greater policy certainty and clear routes to market are now needed to unlock wider workforce investment and skills growth.

[London, 17 April] Earlier this week, Minister for Energy, Michael Shanks MP, delivered the keynote speech at a parliamentary event hosted by Luke Myer MP, where the CCSA pre-launched its updated Workforce and Skills Position Paper with case studies showcasing workforce and skills development stories from across the CCUS sector.

Bringing together parliamentarians and industry, the event showcased the real and growing contribution CCUS is making to jobs, skills and regional opportunity across the UK’s industrial heartlands. Apprentices, interns, scholars and graduates who attended the parliamentary event spoke to the Minister and other parliamentarians about their experiences of entering and working in this emerging and vital sector.

Across two clusters, five projects are now in construction, with Northern Endurance Partnership – the transport and storage system for the East Coast Cluster – and Liverpool Bay CCS – the subsidiary of Eni CCUS Holding that is developing the transport and storage network serving the HyNet cluster – both reporting they have reached around 25% completion. Alongside Net Zero Teesside, Padeswood Cement Plant and Protos Energy Recovery Facility, these projects are already unlocking investment in UK supply chains, supporting thousands of roles and creating new opportunities for young people across engineering, manufacturing and construction.

Following the Minister’s remarks, Jessica Pidgeon, Process Engineer at VPI and a former intern with the company, spoke about her experience of building a career in the sector, including her role supporting plans to retrofit carbon capture to VPI’s Immingham gas power plant. Dr Eleanor Lewis, Strategy Analyst at United Infrastructure – Liverpool Bay CCS’s lead EPC contractor and the UK company delivering the engineering, procurement and construction of the onshore CCS pipeline infrastructure – also spoke about her work helping to deliver the project.

Presenting the key findings of the position paper, Max Musing, the CCSA’s UK Policy Manager, emphasised that the single most important next step to unlock further jobs and skills opportunities is greater policy certainty from the Government. The paper argues that long-term policy clarity and clear routes to market are needed to give investors, employers and training providers the confidence to back the wider pipeline of projects and the workforce needed to deliver them.

The economic opportunity is significant. The paper highlights that transport and storage roles alone could account for 20–30% of direct labour demand across the CCUS sector, contributing to around 15,000 direct roles at peak construction this decade. CCSA analysis also shows that more than 50,000 jobs could be created across the UK’s industrial clusters and supply chains by 2050 if the sector is fully developed, alongside safeguarding existing industrial employment. These are not abstract numbers, but real career opportunities in industrial communities for more young professionals like Jessica and Eleanor in the years ahead.

Jessica Pidgeon, Process Engineer (former graduate) at VPI, said: “After completing my master’s, I had two priorities when looking for a job: returning home to the Humber and working on something meaningful. The internship on VPI’s Humber Zero project – one of the first proposed emitters for the Viking CCS transport and storage network – offered both. I’m proud to be from Hull, and I’m excited to continue supporting Humber Zero and help put the region on the map, by demonstrating how CCS can be delivered successfully at scale.”

Dr Eleanor Lewis, Strategy Analyst at United Infrastructure, said: “As an early career professional transitioning into this industry, I was delighted to share my experience of support and guidance I have received from the HyNet Cluster and United Infrastructure. I have been set up with a lifelong career because of their investment into developing the workforce that will help deliver CCUS. This is just the start of the task ahead to build the industry that brings us closer to net zero, and I am proud to be part of that future.”

Luke Myer, CCUS APPG Co-chair, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, said: “It was a pleasure to meet so many fantastic apprentices working on CCUS projects now under construction in Teesside, I heard about their valuable skills training and the careers they are beginning to build in our region. We now need to maintain momentum on deployment so that even more young people in our industrial communities can access these opportunities in the years ahead.”

Olivia Powis, CEO of the CCSA, said: “CCUS is critical not only to cutting emissions, but to protecting the industries and communities that have powered our economy for generations. It gives young people the opportunity to build long-term careers in the places they grew up. As our report makes clear, the priority now is to maintain momentum on deployment by providing long-term policy clarity to unlock investment, bring forward the next wave of projects and create high-quality jobs for a modern, skilled workforce.”

 

Download the reports:

Full workforce and skills case study report

Executive summary