'Communities have long been calling out for a new generation of good industrial jobs,' Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said as the government published its Clean Energy Jobs Plan today, Sunday 19 October 2025. It’s the first nationwide roadmap for recruiting and training the people needed to hit clean‑power goals - and it puts the North squarely in view.

According to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the North West, North East and Yorkshire & Humber together could support up to 110,000 direct clean‑energy jobs by 2030. That breaks down to as many as 55,000 roles in the North West, 20,000 in the North East and 35,000 in Yorkshire & Humber - a combined uplift of around 60,000 positions from 2023 levels.

Nationally, the government expects employment across the clean‑power economy to double to around 860,000 by 2030, with more than 400,000 additional jobs. The plan identifies 31 priority occupations - from plumbers and electricians to welders and engineering professionals - and promises five new Technical Excellence Colleges to train young people for those roles. Ministers also say companies benefiting from public grants and contracts will be expected to deliver good, secure jobs.

Pay matters as much as headcount. DESNZ data shows entry‑level roles in most clean‑energy occupations pay around 23% more than the same jobs in other sectors. Average salaries in wind, nuclear and electricity networks are already north of £50,000 against a UK average of £37,000, with many of these posts based in coastal and post‑industrial communities across the North.

On skills, the plan sets out routes in for school leavers, ex‑offenders, those out of work and veterans. Skills pilots will run in Cheshire, Lincolnshire and Pembrokeshire, backed by £2.5 million, and a new programme with Mission Renewable will match ex‑forces personnel to roles from solar installation to nuclear operations. The wider ambition is for two‑thirds of young people to reach higher‑level learning by age 25 - whether academic, technical or via apprenticeships.

A just transition for existing workers is a core theme. Oil and gas employees will see up to £20 million from the UK and Scottish governments for bespoke training into thousands of clean‑energy roles, building on the Aberdeen skills pilot. Government will extend the 'energy skills passport' - which maps pathways from oil and gas into offshore wind - to other sectors, including nuclear and the electricity grid. In Scotland, any extension to nuclear will relate to decommissioning only.

The plan is explicit about rights. Ministers will move to close loopholes so that protections enjoyed by offshore oil and gas workers - including the national minimum wage beyond UK territorial seas - apply across clean‑energy work. A new Fair Work Charter for offshore wind developers is promised, alongside workforce criteria in DESNZ grants and procurement. With union coverage in the wider energy sector having fallen from over 70% in the mid‑1990s to around 30% today, the government is pitching a 'pro‑worker, pro‑jobs, pro‑union' reset.

Behind the workforce pledge sits a wave of private capital. Since July 2024, officials say more than £50 billion of investment has been announced across clean energy - from grid upgrades to battery storage and new generation. Sizewell C has the green light, expected to support around 10,000 jobs at peak construction, and Rolls‑Royce has been named preferred bidder for the small modular reactor programme, supporting up to 3,000 roles.

The North’s project pipeline is already stacked. The East Coast and Viking CCUS clusters in Teesside and the Humber are moving, and government says CCUS schemes in the North West and Teesside alone are set to create around 4,000 jobs. Manufacturers are following suit: SeAH Wind is expanding on Teesside; Siemens Energy’s Hull blade plant continues to anchor offshore wind; and OnPath has opened a Sunderland HQ alongside a £1 billion UK investment plan for clean‑energy projects.

Unions say the direction is overdue. The TUC called it a serious plan to start rebuilding industrial heartlands, while the GMB welcomed a 'jobs‑first transition' with fair‑work agreements. The RMT backed moves to tighten maritime and offshore employment law, arguing that stronger standards should translate into domestic opportunities in coastal communities supporting the whole offshore wind supply chain.

Industry voices are pulling in the same direction. Centrica says it is creating 'an apprenticeship for every day of this decade', with a new £35 million training academy to support engineers in technologies from heat pumps to EVs. ScottishPower points to a £24 billion investment programme and hundreds of new recruits this year, targeting thousands more roles by 2027. E.ON reports around 800 people trained annually through its Net Zero Training Academy, while National Grid highlights the scale of coming network work - today it employs around 26,000 people and supports 1,500 apprentices as the country prepares to upgrade more than 500,000 miles of wires and cables.

For Wales and Scotland, the plan spells momentum too. The Acorn CCUS cluster and Cromarty Firth port upgrades in the north, and projects from Pembrokeshire to Port Talbot, sit alongside new interconnectors and grid expansions that will pull in specialist contractors and technicians from across the North. Uniper’s plans at Connah’s Quay point to hydrogen‑ready generation with carbon capture, tying jobs to North Wales and the wider Mersey‑Dee economy.

Crucially for households and high streets, these are skilled roles with progression. Electricians and electrical fitters, plumbers and heating engineers, mechanical and civil engineers, production managers and welding trades are all flagged for rapid growth between now and 2030. That means steady work on retrofitting homes, building out wind, maintaining the grid and delivering the equipment factories that feed it.

There’s realism baked in. The TUC wants a robust, fully funded plan for the North Sea transition that safeguards livelihoods, and employers are pushing for faster skills reform to ensure courses are funded to reflect real training costs. Much will hang on government following through on grant conditions and the Fair Work Charter so public money flows where good jobs - with decent pay and strong rights - are delivered.

For people in Sunderland, Salford, Scunthorpe or Selby, the takeaway is simple: clean‑power work is no longer a distant promise. If the plan lands as billed, young people won’t need to leave home to find a decent job - the work will be here, in the yards, factories and grid projects that keep the North running.