Britain’s race to net zero is hitting a wall—not of technology or funding, but of people. The UK needs roughly 400,000 additional workers in green-skilled trades by 2030 to meet its Clean Energy Mission targets, yet domestic training pipelines can’t scale fast enough to fill the gap.
Quick Summary:
The UK faces critical shortages in green-skilled trades (electricians, welders, solar installers) needed to achieve net zero by 2030. New research suggests skilled migration partnerships with Bangladesh, India, and Kenya could fill immediate gaps while building long-term training capacity in partner countries
Table of Contents
Understanding the Scale of Britain’s Green Skills Crisis
The numbers tell a stark story about where Britain stands right now. The Department of Energy Security and Net Zero’s Clean Energy Jobs Plan identifies 31 specific occupations that need dramatic expansion—we’re talking about roles like electrical engineers, bricklayers, welders, quantity surveyors, and overhead line workers. Employment in these fields needs to increase by at least 50 percent across the board, with some occupations requiring growth closer to 200 percent.
What makes this particularly challenging is that these aren’t entry-level positions you can fill with enthusiasm and a two-week training course. Nearly 55 percent of current vacancies in these 31 occupations are classified as “hard to fill” due to skills shortages. Employers report struggling to find qualified candidates who can safely install solar panels, wire high-voltage systems, or weld components for offshore wind turbines—work that requires both technical expertise and practical experience.
The domestic training infrastructure faces serious constraints. There’s limited capacity in technical colleges and apprenticeship programs, demographic shortfalls mean fewer young people entering trades, project pipelines remain unpredictable (making it hard to justify long-term training investments), and state support for employers taking on apprenticeships has been inadequate. Even if every lever gets pulled simultaneously to expand domestic training, the timeline for producing fully qualified workers in these technical fields simply doesn’t align with the urgency of climate targets.
How Skilled Immigration Already Supports UK Decarbonization
This isn’t a theoretical discussion about what might happen in future—skilled migration is already filling critical gaps in Britain’s green workforce right now. Over the past four years, nearly 41,000 workers have arrived in the UK through Skilled Worker visas specifically for these 31 priority clean energy occupations. That’s a substantial contribution, yet employers still report severe shortages.
What’s particularly interesting is where these workers come from and what roles they fill. India alone has sent over 10,000 workers to the UK for clean energy occupations in the last four and a half years—more than a quarter of all migrants in these fields. Many work in high-skilled positions like electrical and civil engineering, bringing expertise that British employers struggled to find domestically.
Bangladesh has sent 411 workers in the same period, primarily in hands-on trades like bricklaying, carpentry, and roofing. Kenya contributed 78 workers, with over half in electrical or engineering occupations. These aren’t massive numbers on their own, but they represent existing recruitment pathways and established diaspora communities that make further partnerships more viable.
Why Pure Recruitment Won’t Be Enough Going Forward
The international labor market for green-skilled workers is becoming increasingly competitive, and the UK is far from the only country facing workforce shortages for decarbonization. Germany, Australia, Canada, and several EU nations are all aggressively recruiting in the same talent pools, often with more attractive packages or easier visa pathways than Britain currently offers.
Skilled migrants increasingly have their pick of destination countries. When a qualified solar installer or electrical engineer in India or Kenya decides to work abroad, they’re comparing not just salaries but also visa processes, family reunification policies, pathways to permanent residence, and overall quality of life. The UK needs to improve its offer or risk losing out to competitors who are moving faster and more strategically.
This matters because decarbonization is fundamentally a global public good. Climate change doesn’t respect borders, and holes in renewable energy capacity caused by brain drain in Bangladesh or Kenya ultimately affect everyone’s climate outcomes. The UK has a stake in ensuring that migration supports rather than undermines global progress toward net zero.
What Green Skills Mobility Partnerships Actually Look Like
These partnerships operate on a straightforward principle: the destination country invests in expanding and upgrading training institutions in the origin country, then establishes clear pathways for graduates to work in both countries depending on where demand exists. Everyone benefits—the UK gets reliable access to qualified workers, the partner country builds stronger training infrastructure, and individual workers gain better skills and more employment options.
Germany has established similar arrangements with several countries, typically anchored through employer-led sector bodies that ensure training aligns with actual industry standards and hiring needs. These partnerships often include language training embedded directly into technical coursework, recognition of prior learning systems to fast-track experienced workers, and coordinated recruitment through vetted agencies.
For the UK, such partnerships could leverage existing infrastructure like the Green and Inclusive Growth Centre of Expertise, which already provides technical support for sustainable development projects globally. The British Council maintains longstanding operations in potential partner countries, including engineering and TVET (technical and vocational education and training) programs. The institutional foundations already exist—what’s missing is strategic coordination and political will.
The benefits extend well beyond just filling immediate vacancies. Partnerships create positive path dependencies through established diaspora communities, employer experience with workers from specific countries, and trusted recruitment channels that reduce fraud and exploitation. They enhance trade and foreign policy relationships by demonstrating that the UK values its partners’ development goals rather than treating them purely as labor sources. And they help the UK meet commitments under international frameworks like the Global Compact for Migration and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Why Bangladesh Makes Sense as a Strategic Partner
Bangladesh represents one of the world’s largest migrant origin countries, with over four percent of its population working abroad as of 2024. The vast majority—about 80 percent—currently migrate to Gulf countries, with more than 60 percent employed in construction trades. This means Bangladesh has already built substantial infrastructure around training workers for international labor markets and managing large-scale emigration.
The structure is broadly comparable to the UK’s regulated, outcomes-based approach, though mutual recognition isn’t automatic. Bangladeshi electricians trained to NTVQF Levels 2-3 (semi-skilled and skilled worker levels) would need top-up training to meet UK standards, particularly around inspection, testing, and specific safety protocols. The Electrotechnical Experienced Worker Assessment process already exists to credential overseas-qualified electricians, so the pathway is established even if it requires some bridging coursework.
Bangladesh actively seeks to send workers overseas through the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training, which operates 110 technical training centers nationwide. However, reports indicate that shortages of qualified trainers and equipment limit capacity even where physical facilities exist—this represents a specific area where targeted UK support could make immediate impact.
Diplomatically, Bangladesh is already a UK partner of consequence. The fifth UK-Bangladesh Strategic Dialogue in 2023 created a Joint Working Group on migration and returns, and both countries must implement formal frameworks for managing migration cases. Bangladesh has also demonstrated interest in skills mobility partnerships, launching a Bangladesh-EU Talent Partnership in July 2024 that aligns training, language instruction, and recruitment for legal mobility to EU member states. The infrastructure and political will already exist; the UK just needs to engage.
India’s Massive Training Capacity and Clean Energy Ambitions
India brings something to the table that Bangladesh and Kenya can’t match at the same scale: massive existing training capacity combined with equally ambitious domestic clean energy targets. India wants 39 percent of its power from clean sources next year, rising to 44 percent by 2032. To achieve this, they’re aiming for 300GW of solar capacity by 2030, with 123GW already installed by August 2025. The flagship Surya Ghar program, launched in 2024, targets 10 million residential rooftop solar systems by the end of 2027.
Several states, like Telangana, are actively upgrading ITIs and orienting them specifically toward international labor markets. There’s also a pool of 33 National Skill Training Institutes under direct government control, seven of which have been prepared explicitly for training workers for overseas employment. Germany has already established a partnership with the NSTI in Hyderabad to support renewable energy training to global competency standards, including development of bridging courses tailored to German industry needs—a model the UK could easily replicate.
Training is delivered within India’s ten-level National Skills Qualifications Framework, which uses competency-based standards similar in structure to the UK’s Regulated Qualifications Framework. While not yet directly mappable, a new mutual recognition agreement could ease credential recognition, building on the 2022 UK-India agreement that already covers higher education qualifications. Even without formal mutual recognition, experienced Indian workers could receive relatively short periods of top-up training to bridge any standards gaps.
The British Council already has longstanding operations in India including engineering programs, and has embedded UK technical experts into skill-sharing efforts through the India-UK PACT decarbonization program. The UK Department for Business and Trade organized a skills-focused trade mission to India in March 2025. The relationships and expertise already exist—what’s needed is strategic coordination to channel them toward migration partnerships.
Diplomatically, India is a current UK priority with an established UK-India Roadmap 2030 stating joint intentions to deepen the existing Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. A migration and mobility partnership has existed since 2021, though thus far limited to higher education. India actively prioritizes labor mobility partnerships in international negotiations and proposed reforms to its overseas mobility legislation in late 2025 to improve cross-governmental coordination of emigration.
Kenya’s Growing Role in Green Skills and Regional Leadership
Kenya approaches this partnership from a different angle than India or Bangladesh. While its training capacity isn’t yet at the same massive scale, Kenya is positioning itself as a regional leader in renewable energy with ambitious goals to achieve universal electricity access by 2030, with almost all generation from renewable sources. The country is becoming a hub for hydropower and solar photovoltaics across East Africa.
Kenya’s TVET system is governed by the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority, which oversees curriculum development and quality assurance within the ten-level Kenya National Qualifications Framework. While not directly mappable to the UK’s RQF, qualifications delivered under it can be benchmarked by UK ENIC (Education and Training National Information Centre). Kenya has also developed the National Qualifications Classification Standard deliberately based on the International Standard Classification of Education to ensure comparability across borders.
A strategic partnership was agreed between the UK and Kenya in 2020, focused for 2025-2030 on green growth, science and technology, and job creation. The British Council has been a key partner in Kenya’s TVET reform agenda, working closely with the State Department for Vocational and Technical Training and TVETA. Programs have supported transition to competency-based education and training, modernized curricula in renewable energy and construction, and strengthened institutional capacity through industry-college linkages.
Specific institutions offer particularly promising partnership opportunities. The KenGen Geothermal Training Centre is a utility-run institute with longstanding programs in multiple engineering disciplines. The Institute of Energy Studies and Research, run by Kenya Power, offers training in high-voltage overhead lines. These established centers already meet quality standards and could scale relatively quickly with targeted support.
Kenya has stated aims to send one million workers abroad annually until 2028. In 2024, Kenya agreed to a migration partnership with Germany that President Ruto warmly welcomed with hopes of hundreds of thousands moving. Kenya is now actively seeking further agreements including with Canada, and has established both a National Policy on Labour Migration (2023) and a National Strategy on Skills Development for Labour Mobility (2024) to better coordinate skills mapping, training provision, and international placements.
What These Partnerships Would Actually Require from the UK
Implementing green skills mobility partnerships isn’t just a matter of signing agreements and hoping workers appear—it requires deliberate institutional coordination and sustained investment on the UK side. The architecture would need to be anchored through employer-led sector bodies, similar to what Germany is already piloting widely, ensuring that training aligns with actual industry standards and hiring needs rather than theoretical qualifications.
Skills England, the new body tasked with priority-setting across the UK skills landscape, could provide coordination infrastructure. This would ensure that training delivered in partner countries genuinely matches UK occupational standards and employer demand, avoiding the situation where workers arrive with credentials that don’t translate to employability.
The UK already possesses most tools necessary for implementation. The British Council has longstanding expertise and relationships in all three proposed partner countries, with proven track records in TVET modernization and skills development. There’s a deep ecosystem of education standard-setting and testing actors with global presence—organizations like City and Guilds that already credential overseas-qualified workers. Despite cuts to official development assistance budgets, relevant FCDO programming is already underway in these countries that could be leveraged.
Financial investment would primarily target three areas: upgrading training facilities and equipment in partner countries where capacity constraints exist (like Bangladesh’s shortage of qualified trainers and equipment despite having physical facilities); developing and delivering bridging courses either in-country or upon arrival in the UK to ensure workers meet UK standards; and establishing robust assessment and certification systems that prevent credential fraud while recognizing genuine competency.
Recruitment integrity mechanisms would need to be established to protect both workers and employers. This could build on existing structures like India’s Ministry of External Affairs list of approved recruitment agents under the 1983 Emigration Act, or Kenya’s National Employment Authority network of registered agencies. Clear protocols around costs, contracts, and worker protections prevent the exploitation that too often plagues international recruitment.
The Risks of Moving Too Slowly
Every month that the UK delays is a month that competitors establish relationships with training institutions, build trust with governments and recruitment agencies, and create positive path dependencies with workers who begin to see certain destinations as natural choices. First-mover advantages matter enormously in international recruitment—the networks and reputations built through early partnerships become self-reinforcing as diaspora communities grow and word-of-mouth recommendations circulate.
The UK risks finding itself in a position where it’s competing for whatever talent remains after faster-moving countries have already secured partnerships with the highest-quality training institutions and most motivated workers. This would mean paying higher recruitment costs, accepting longer timelines, and potentially settling for less qualified candidates.
The renewable energy sector itself faces time pressures that immigration policy needs to recognize. Project delays caused by workforce shortages aren’t just inconvenient—they cascade through the entire supply chain, driving up costs, discouraging investment, and ultimately pushing net zero targets further out of reach. Every year of delay makes the eventual transition more expensive and more disruptive.
How This Fits Within Broader UK Industrial Strategy
Green skills mobility partnerships shouldn’t exist in isolation—they need to be explicitly anchored within the UK’s broader industrial strategy and net zero planning. The Industrial Strategy and the House of Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee have both already recognized that migration policy must be part of the response to workforce shortages constraining decarbonization.
Skills England’s new priority-setting function could integrate international partnerships into national workforce planning. Rather than treating domestic training and international recruitment as separate tracks that accidentally overlap, a coordinated approach would identify where domestic pipelines can reasonably scale, where they face structural constraints, and where partnerships with specific countries offer the most viable path to filling gaps.
Trade policy could be leveraged to support these partnerships. The UK-India Roadmap 2030 and similar frameworks create spaces for linking trade agreements with mobility provisions, though this requires political courage given sensitivities around immigration. Done properly, skills partnerships become part of broader economic engagement rather than contentious standalone immigration programs.
Development assistance could also be reoriented to support partnerships that serve both development and domestic goals. FCDO programming in countries like Kenya and Bangladesh already includes TVET strengthening—explicitly connecting that to workforce needs in the UK creates alignment between development objectives and national interest that makes funding more sustainable politically.
