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Supporting the Digital Energy Transition: Your Career

Site: OpenLearn Create
Course: Get Set for Success: Digital Energy Basics
Book: Supporting the Digital Energy Transition: Your Career
Printed by: Guest user
Date: Tuesday, 3 February 2026, 7:11 PM

Table of contents

1. Welcome

Welcome to Week Two! You should have gained a good understanding of what the digital energy transition is, and why it is important within the European context in Week One of the course. This week we take a closer look at:

  • What kind of skills are needed to support the digital energy transition. 
  • What roles and careers are currently available. 
  • What the future of digital energy jobs might look like. 

 

Learning Outcomes

 

After studying this week of the course, you should be able to: 

  •  Understand what skills are needed for different types of roles in the energy sector.
  • Plan your journey into, or development of, a digital energy related career. 

2. Introduction

If you’re interested in a career, or are already working in the energy sector, it’s vital to understand the wider context and what factors are shaping industry needs and roles within different types of organisations.  

The energy sector is global and there are many different types of roles, in a range of different organisations. As reported by the International Energy Agency (IEA) “The energy sector employed over 65 million people in 2019, equivalent to around 2% of global employment” (World Energy Employment). 

Central to the digital energy transition is both the creation of new roles and ensuring that all employees – whatever their role – have the digital knowledge and skills for their jobs. For example, the IEA’s Net Zero by 2050 report predicts that “The transition to net zero brings substantial new opportunities for employment, with 14 million jobs created by 2030 [globally]… thanks to new activities and investment in clean energy.”  

As we integrate more digital technologies into our working lives, some jobs are also impacted by automation. Konstantinos Pouliakas explores some of these estimates in Automation risk in the EU labour market: A skills-needed approach, which reveals that “About 14% of EU adult workers are found to face a very high risk of automation.” Elsewhere, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimate that across 38 OECD member countries, including many European countries, “…occupations at the highest risk of automation account for about 28% of jobs.” (Future of Work). While estimates show a substantial impact on many EU workers, for many workers increased digitalisation means job enrichment and task expansion, which requires substantial digital and other up- and re-skilling. As we will also see in this week of the course, transversal or soft skills (such as good communication and the ability to collaborate) are also vital for both technical and non-technical roles. 

Whilst there are skills gaps for both technical and non-technical roles in jobs connected to the digital energy transition, the European Union is actively supporting up- or re-skilling. We will also take a closer look at what activities and policies are helping ensure that everyone is ready to engage with these new roles and industries in this week of the course.

3. What skills does industry need?

The focus on clean energy will increase employment opportunities, providing new roles in the sector. In addition, the shift towards sustainable production and consumption will have impacts that affect all occupations and sectors. 

A range of different skills are needed as part of the digital energy transition. Within this context there are also thyroid occupations. These are roles which are key to the clean energy transition. Whilst some occupations, such as alternative fuel engineers and researchers, require highly skilled workers, this is not always the case. Middle-skilled occupations with technical profiles, such as offshore renewable energy plant operators and biogas technicians, are equally essential. Some thyroid occupations are still being defined, as the implications of emerging technologies (e.g. hydrogen) for skills progressively find their way into professional practice, and others may emerge. You can find out more about this type of role in The circular economy to step up skill needs and the importance of ‘thyroid occupations’.

The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training’s (Cedefop) European Green Deal Scenario predicts significant additional employment growth for science and engineering (associate) professionals, business and administration professionals, chief executives, senior officials and legislators, administrative and commercial managers, and information and communications technology professionals in the years up to 2030. The types of occupation that are open to you may also depend on your location. Different regions have different energy industries that dominate. For example, if you are based on or near the coast, there may be more wind energy related roles available. You can read more about this topic in this International Energy Agency (IEA) report Mapping Green and Digital Energy Jobs. 

‘Skills for the green transition’ include skills and competences, but also knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes needed to live, work and act in resource-efficient and sustainable economies and societies. These can be grouped into: 

  • Technical: required to adapt or implement standards, processes, services, products and technologies to protect ecosystems and biodiversity, and to reduce energy, materials and water consumption. Technical skills can be occupation-specific or cross-sectoral; and
  • Transversal: linked to sustainable thinking and acting, relevant to work (in all economic sectors and occupations) and life. They are alternatively referred to as ‘sustainability competences’, ‘life skills’, ‘soft skills’ or ‘core skills.’ These skills can include leadership and communication skills.

More specifically, energy digitalisation also requires that employees have a basic understanding of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain. You can find out more about these in the Every1 course Energy Flows, Energy Systems. We take a closer look at what kind of transversal skills are needed for different roles in the next sections of the course.

 

4. Skills and careers to support Europe's digital energy transition

Video: Digitalisation of the European Energy Sector. Needs and examples of approaches/projects (Part 1) (8:41 minutes)

Download the video transcript. 

This video produced by colleagues from the EDDIE Association explores the skills and careers needed to support Europe’s digital energy transition. This presentation highlights three key 2025 reports exploring Europe’s digital energy skills gaps and recommendations for how to address the challenges raised. Finally, this presentation outlines the role of large-scale partnerships on skills in the European energy digitalisation ecosystem.  As you watch this video, consider this skills gaps highlighted. What key skills do the European workforce need to develop?

If you want to take a closer look, the reports mentioned in this video are: 

5. Digitalisation related skills

Digital technologies are set to play a key role in the transition to more secure and sustainable energy systems, fostering greater connectivity, efficiency, reliability and emissions reductions. New digital tools – such as those that can help match power supply with demand; predict and detect faults in networks; or give greater control to consumers – will enable the faster integration of renewables, improve grid stability and unlock greater energy savings. However, the pace of digitalisation will depend heavily on the energy sector’s ability to build a workforce with the right skills.

The number of digital roles across the energy sector has picked up globally. Yet there is growing evidence that it remains broadly insufficient, inhibiting greater investment in digitalisation. Moreover, 44% of Europeans do not have basic digital skills. With most jobs set to require digital skills in the coming years, energy utilities will increasingly be competing for a limited pool of qualified workers to bridge the sector's skills gap. This will require stronger and more cohesive digital hiring strategies and training efforts. 

Digitalisation is a long-standing megatrend that has already had a transformative labour market impact. In recent decades, the IT sector has expanded and become increasingly strategically important; digital skills and the capacity to work with digital tools have become transversal requirements in almost all types of jobs. The digital transition will continue to impact employment across sectors, with demand in the telecommunications and the computer programming sectors expected to grow in most Member States. 

Emerging digital skill needs transcend sectors, occupations and qualification levels. With an increase in the use of digital technologies across all sectors, the knowledge-based economy concept has become more strongly connected to digitalisation. The expanding capacity and application of digital technologies have set the EU on course for more fundamental transformation. Going beyond driving product, process and service innovation, currently available digital technology (e.g. cloud-based solutions, sensor-enabled data collection and analysis, and machine learning) enables better and more informed decision-making. 

Digitalisation and innovation policy and funding will contribute substantially to the digital transformation in the EU. The European Commission’s Digital Decade policy programme aims at a secure and sustainable transformation by 2030. It sets ambitious targets to be achieved by then: 20 million ICT specialists, 80% or more of the population having basic digital skills, and 3 in 4 EU companies using cloud and/or artificial intelligence. Policy development and implementation aimed at reaching these targets will likely significantly boost employment in occupations where high-level digital skills are required. 

The Large-scale Skills Partnership (LSP) on the Digitalisation of the Energy System is an initiative from Pact for Skills to “…contribute to building a digitally-skilled workforce by fostering collaboration between training providers, energy sector companies, and digital technology firms.” Education for Digitalisation of Energy (EDDIE) coordinates this important initiative.   

6. Large Scale Skills Partnerships

Video: Digitalisation of the European Energy Sector: Needs and examples of approaches and projects (Part 2) (16:07 minutes)

Download the video transcript.

This video produced by colleagues from the EDDIE Association focuses on large-scale skills partnerships, which bring together and support varied stakeholders to bridge the digital energy skills gap in Europe. Find out more about the role of the EDucation for Digitalisation of Energy (EDDIE) Association (https://eddie.energy) and their work to understand the skills needed, foster collaborations and support training and job opportunities across Europe. Finally, the video also discusses the new SG-SKILL project that focuses on a priority training area: smart grids.  As you watch this video, consider the complexity of the partnerships between different organisations and processes. How might these partnerships be supported? We return to look at this topic in the section How the European Union is supporting digital energy careers.

7. A closer look at soft skills

A wide range of technical, transversal and soft skills are needed to drive the digital energy transition. Soft skills, such as communication and persuasion, are becoming more important in profiles across sectors, demonstrating the proliferation of service-oriented activities. Soft skills help to communicate with and educate producers and consumers about the merits of adopting green solutions or practices. Soft skills also contribute to establishing green visions or mindsets among the population, workers or organisations.

In addition, the digitalisation and ‘greening’ of processes also affects work organisation in these types of sectors. Soft skills that facilitate working collaboratively across functions within organisations and with an expanding range of stakeholders are becoming more important. The overarching European Green Deal goal of ensuring a just transition means that acting with empathy and taking a human-centred approach to management and process design are essential. 

Look at the following table from Cedefop, which describes the soft and technical skills needed for different sectors in the digital energy transition.

Table One: Emerging skill needs in waste management, circular economy, agri-food sectors and smart and green cities (expert assessment) in 2021-2023.

 

Technical Skills

Soft Skills

Waste Management

ICT/engineering skills related to the adoption of new technologies for processing waste

Collaboration skills.

Persuasion skills to work with organisations to persuade them to reduce waste levels including product design consistent with the circular economy.

Circular Economy

Skills linked to design and repair (some may be traditional manual ones currently in decline)

Marketing/communication skills.

Persuasion skills (e.g. to support change in consumer behaviour)

Agri-food

Skills linked to adoption of advanced agricultural production (e.g. precision farming). Skills linked to more sustainable foodstuff production.

ICT / data analysis skills.

Communication and persuasion skills (to engage with producers and the public).

Smart green cities

ICT and data analysis skills (at the heart of smart, green cities). Awareness of the potential of analysing data generated by sensors (municipal planning).

Communication and persuasion skills to encourage the general public to make use of the services/functions made possible by smart, green technologies (e.g. e-government). Collaboration skills (to engage with different types of organisations in cities).

 

The specific skills required in occupations and sectors, and the extent and level of mastery required, depend on the speed and direction of change brought about by regulation, technology, changing consumer preferences, emerging partnerships between stakeholders and their features, and other trends. In rapidly changing contexts, technical skills facilitating the green transition are symbiotic with soft ones, as the latter amplify the impact of innovation via consumer and citizen engagement. Digital and data analysis skills need to be embedded across the board in ‘green’ curricula and programmes, because the twin transition boosts demand for such skills in all sectors. In some jobs, digital skills will increasingly be considered transversal rather than purely technical. 

Activity: Energy production and supply (10 minutes)

Review the table from Cedefop above. Consider the addition of a new row, called Energy production and supply. What technical and/or soft skills would you consider valuable for this category? Where and how might these soft skills in energy production/supply be developed? Should they be taught in schools? At universities or colleges? Training by employers in the sector? 

Write down your thoughts. If you are working through the course with others you may like to discuss your responses together.   

You can also read more about the digital energy transition and clean technology professions within the European context in this Bruegel article Clean industrial transformation: where does Europe stand? For more on the UK context see Going green and digital: the “twin transition” of regional economies.

 

8. How the European Union is supporting digital energy careers

The skills needed to support the digital energy transition should also be reflected in education and training provision at all qualification levels. Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) will be crucial to providing skill sets that evolve flexibly and reflect the dynamic nature of the clean energy landscape. European funded initiatives such as European Technology & Innovation Platforms (ETIPs) and the European Digital SME Alliance focuses on pan-European collaboration to address skills gaps and ensure that Europe has the skills needed for the digital energy transition. In late 2025 ETIP-SNET published a report Upskilling needs for the energy system to support the energy transition with a focus on digital skills.

The European Union is supporting digital energy careers both directly and indirectly. The European Skills Agenda aligns with a number of European Commission strategies, including the European Green Deal and Digital Strategy. It directly focuses on the clean energy transition and digitalisation, engaging with actors across the bloc, including universities, businesses and other education providers, as well as promoting lifelong learning, upskilling and reskilling.  The Large-scale Skills Partnership (LSP) on the Digitalisation of the Energy System supports collaboration between a wide range of stakeholders to ensure that Europe’s workforce is ready for the digital energy transition. As we saw earlier in this week of the course, initiatives such as Education for Digitalisation of Energy (EDDIE) coordinate efforts to up- and re-skill workers across Europe. Projects such as Every1  (the creators of this course) identify gaps in current training provision, whilst engaging with a wide range of stakeholders to support everyone’s engagement in the digital energy transition.

The main aim of Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) is to support resilience of EU Member States after the pandemic and mitigate the impact of global energy market disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine. However, sustainability and speeding up the transition towards climate neutrality by 2050 were important requirements to receive funding. 

Further Reflection (5 minutes) 

In this week of the course, we’ve touched on different types of skills and experiences that will be useful for different energy or digital related jobs. What experiences and skills do you already have, for roles you’re interested in? Which skills or experiences would you like to acquire? Where might you start your learning journey?

Write down your thoughts. If you are working through the course with others you may like to discuss your reflections together.   

9. Conclusion

The digital energy transition involves a “twin transition” of supporting the development and deepening of digital and clean energy skills. Whilst you may be working towards, or currently in, a non-technical profession within the digital energy sector, having a solid understanding of digital technology basics and developing transversal skills are vital to your career. 

Now that you have a better understanding of the types of skills needed as part of the digital energy transition, we’ll now take a deeper look at how we produce and consume energy, and the role of smart devices.

10. Further Resources

 

Go to 3) Energy use and Smart Devices.