Ep. 09 Net Zero’s Breaking Point: The Talent Shortage

In this episode we continue our Green Skills audio only series. Fiona speaks with Mat Ilic, CEO of Greenworkx, an organisation building the workforce needed to deliver the transition. Mat’s work sits at the intersection of industry, social impact and public policy, and he brings one of the clearest views on what the UK must do to avoid a skills bottleneck that could slow climate progress for years.

The scale of the challenge is stark: around 4 million workers will need to retrain in the next five years if the UK is to stay on track for net zero. Some jobs will disappear. Others will transform. Entirely new sectors will emerge, from low carbon heating to home energy upgrades to the electro technical work that underpins everything from data centres to EV charging.

This conversation dives into what it will take to build a workforce capable of meeting that moment.

🔍 In this episode you will learn:

• Why the workforce gap is becoming one of the biggest risks to net zero

• Why electrical skills sit at the heart of almost every part of the transition

• The real barriers stopping people from retraining, from cost to confidence to information gaps

• Why employers need policy stability to hire and invest in skills at scale

• What a fair and inclusive transition looks like for workers at every stage of their career

• How Greenworkx is creating new pathways into roles that did not exist a decade ago

Whether you are an employer, policymaker, L and D leader, or someone exploring a move into the green economy, this is a practical and ambitious guide to one of the most urgent challenges of the transition.

📚 Resources and Links

Explore Greenworkx:
https://greenworkx.org