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Energy transition? Labor market transition!

image event imaintain techportLast week, as part of Techport Technology Week, the networking event iMaintain Techport took place at Tata Steel’s conference center in Ijmuiden. The theme of this event was Smart Transition, and key developments in the industry were discussed: a smarter approach to manufacturing and maintenance, the energy transition and related labor market developments.

In the pre-event program, our director Robrecht Bakker joined us to talk about developments in the technical labor market with Frank Schouten of our partner Compris. In an interesting conversation, the challenges as well as opportunities for the future of the technical labor market were discussed.

The main program also revisited this issue. In a brief telephone interview, Olof van der Gaag, director of NVDE (Dutch Association for Sustainable Energy) said that there are currently nearly 100,000 technical vacancies open and that the labor shortage threatens to stall the energy transition. A push for technical education is really needed, in addition to, of course, innovation and other creative solution. In other words, “no energy transition without labor market transition.”

More on this? Also listen to the episode podcast Reliable Sources made on this topic:
“Crisis looming: Dutch economy stalled by shortage of tech-skilled workers”

The entire recording of iMaintain Techport 2021 can be viewed below; our contribution starts at 22:44.

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