The global offshore wind industry is entering another major phase of expansion. Global offshore wind capacity reached approximately 92.5 GW by the end of 2025, while the Global Wind Energy Council expects more than 328 GW of new offshore wind capacity to be added between 2026 and 2035. This would take total global offshore wind capacity to around 420 GW.
But building hundreds of gigawatts of new capacity requires more than turbines, vessels and investment. It requires a sufficiently large and appropriately skilled offshore wind workforce to construct, commission, operate and maintain these assets.
According to the Global Wind Workforce Outlook 2025–2030 by the Global Wind Organisation (GWO) and Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), the global wind industry will require approximately 493,000 technicians this year, rising to around 628,000 by 2030. Offshore wind is expected to account for a growing share of this demand as projects become larger and operational fleets expand.
Europe provides another indication of the pressure ahead. WindEurope estimates that the European wind industry supported around 442,800 jobs in 2024, with employment expected to reach approximately 607,000 by 2030. At the same time, the organisation identifies several occupations facing potential shortages, including blade technicians, field engineers and pre-assembly support technicians.
Offshore wind projects need workers with the right technical competence, safety training, offshore experience and ability to mobilise across projects and jurisdictions. As demand increases simultaneously across construction, commissioning and operations and maintenance, competition for experienced personnel is likely to become increasingly important.
Where will the industry find enough skilled people to deliver the next generation of offshore wind projects?
The offshore wind workforce challenge is closely connected to the speed at which the industry is expanding. New capacity creates demand not only during construction, but throughout commissioning and decades of operations and maintenance. As more projects move through these stages simultaneously, workforce requirements accumulate across the sector.
The Global Wind Workforce Outlook 2025–2030 projects that the global wind industry will need approximately 628,000 technicians by 2030, compared with around 493,000 in 2026. Importantly, offshore wind is expected to represent an increasing share of this technical workforce demand.
One reason is the growing installed base of turbines that must be maintained. The workforce outlook shows increasing demand associated with regular inspection and operations and maintenance (O&M). Unlike construction activity, which moves between projects, operational wind farms create recurring requirements for technicians throughout their working lives.
This changes the nature of the workforce challenge. The industry must find people for new installations while retaining sufficient experienced personnel to service the expanding fleet of operational assets.
The issue, therefore, is not simply that offshore wind needs more workers. Workforce demand is increasing across multiple stages of the project lifecycle at the same time, while some of the roles required involve specialised technical competencies that cannot be developed immediately.
For offshore wind developers and contractors, this makes workforce availability increasingly relevant to project planning. Securing vessels, equipment and project capacity is only part of the equation. Projects also need access to appropriately trained and experienced personnel when and where they are required.
This is where the offshore wind workforce gap becomes particularly difficult: increasing headcount alone will not solve it. The industry also needs the right combination of skills, experience and competencies.
The offshore wind workforce challenge cannot be solved simply by increasing recruitment. Offshore projects require personnel who combine technical competence with safety training and, depending on the role, experience working in demanding offshore environments.
The range of competencies involved illustrates the challenge. Global Wind Organisation (GWO) training standards cover areas including Basic Safety Training, Basic Technical Training, Advanced Rescue Training, Blade Repair, High Voltage and Crane and Hoist, alongside other specialist training pathways.
This means that having a large pool of technically capable candidates does not automatically translate into having a workforce ready for offshore wind deployment. Personnel may still require additional safety or technical training before they can perform particular roles.
The skills requirement is also changing as the installed wind fleet grows. According to the Global Wind Workforce Outlook 2025–2030, demand is not limited to entry-level technicians. The industry requires personnel at intermediate and advanced competency levels, particularly as operations and maintenance requirements expand.
This creates a more complicated workforce problem. Training can bring new people into the sector, but experience cannot be produced at the same speed. Technicians need time in the field to develop the practical knowledge required for more specialised and responsible positions.
The result is competition not only for workers, but particularly for experienced workers with the right combination of competencies.
This pressure is becoming visible in Europe. WindEurope identifies several occupations that may face particularly significant shortages as the sector expands, including blade technicians, field engineers and pre-assembly support technicians.
This distinction matters. An overall increase in employment does not necessarily solve shortages in individual occupations. A project may have access to a broad labour pool while still struggling to find people with the exact technical profile required for a particular stage of construction, commissioning or maintenance.
The industry needs more people, but it also needs a reliable pipeline through which new entrants can gain the training, competencies and practical experience required to progress into increasingly specialised roles.
As offshore wind expands, workforce demand will not be distributed evenly across every role. Different stages of a wind farm’s lifecycle require different competencies, and the growing operational fleet is gradually changing where the strongest demand for skilled personnel will emerge.
Construction and installation remain major sources of workforce demand. New offshore wind farms require personnel across turbine assembly, installation, electrical systems, commissioning and associated technical activities.
The Global Wind Workforce Outlook 2025–2030 identifies Assembly as one of the major areas of technician demand throughout the forecast period. At the same time, the report expects the required competency mix to evolve as the industry grows.
This creates a recruitment challenge for projects entering construction at similar times. Increasing the number of new technicians can expand the available labour pool, but personnel still need the appropriate training and experience before they can take on more complex responsibilities.
Every additional operational project adds turbines and infrastructure requiring regular inspection, servicing and maintenance. The GWO/GWEC workforce outlook identifies Regular Inspection as an increasingly important source of technician demand and highlights the growing workforce requirements associated with operations and maintenance.
This is particularly important for workforce planning because O&M requirements are recurring. As the installed offshore wind fleet becomes larger, more personnel must remain available to support existing assets while other workers are required for new projects.
European workforce projections provide a clearer indication of where specific bottlenecks could emerge.
WindEurope identifies blade technicians, field engineers and pre-assembly support technicians among the occupations facing significant future skills shortages. Its analysis also expects total European wind employment to grow from approximately 442,800 jobs in 2024 to around 607,000 by 2030.
Having hundreds of potential applicants provides limited protection against a shortage if only a small proportion have the qualifications and experience required for a specific technical position.
The GWO/GWEC outlook also points towards increasing requirements for intermediate and advanced competency levels. This creates one of the industry’s more difficult workforce challenges because experienced specialists cannot be developed through recruitment alone.
Training can provide the foundation, but practical experience develops over time. As projects compete for experienced technicians, simply recruiting more entry-level workers will therefore not immediately resolve shortages at higher competency levels.
The industry will also need to retain experienced personnel and, importantly, identify workers in adjacent industries whose existing offshore and technical skills can be transferred into wind.
Where Will the Offshore Wind Workforce Come From?
If offshore wind cannot meet future demand through new entrants alone, the industry will need to broaden the talent pool. One of the most promising opportunities is to attract experienced workers from adjacent offshore and energy sectors.
The offshore oil and gas industry already employs people with many of the capabilities required in offshore wind: engineering experience, offshore working practices, project execution skills, fabrication expertise and familiarity with complex marine operations.
Analysis referenced by the International Energy Agency indicates that more than 90% of the UK oil and gas workforce has skills with medium to high transferability to other energy sectors, including offshore wind, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, and decommissioning.
The same source highlights occupational groups including engineers, project managers and fabricators as part of the workforce with skills relevant to the wider energy transition.
Instead of developing every required capability from the beginning, the sector can recruit professionals who already understand offshore operations and focus additional training on the competencies specific to wind.
Transferring experienced personnel from other sectors can help address immediate shortages, but it cannot provide the entire workforce required for long-term industry growth.
With GWO and GWEC projecting global wind technician demand to increase, the sector will also need a continuous pipeline of new workers entering and progressing through the industry.
That means workforce development needs to happen on several fronts simultaneously: attracting new entrants, transferring suitable workers from adjacent sectors and developing existing technicians towards more advanced competency levels.
The challenge is that bringing people into the sector is only the beginning. Training alone does not automatically create an experienced offshore wind workforce.
Training is essential to expanding the offshore wind workforce, but increasing the number of people completing courses will not automatically eliminate the skills gap. The industry also needs clear pathways that allow workers to convert training into practical experience and progressively develop more advanced competencies.
Global Wind Organisation standards provide structured training across areas including Basic Safety Training, Basic Technical Training, Advanced Rescue Training, Blade Repair, High Voltage, Crane and Hoist and other specialist competencies.
These standards provide an important foundation for preparing personnel for work in the wind industry. However, completing the relevant training does not give a new technician the practical experience of someone who has already spent years working on wind projects.
This distinction becomes increasingly important as demand shifts towards more experienced personnel.
The Global Wind Workforce Outlook 2025–2030 indicates increasing requirements for workers at intermediate and advanced competency levels. This means the workforce challenge is not simply about bringing sufficient numbers of people through initial training. The industry must also create opportunities for them to accumulate experience and progress into more specialised roles.
A sustainable workforce pipeline therefore needs to connect several stages:
If any part of this progression becomes constrained, the effects can eventually appear further up the workforce pipeline.
For example, recruiting and training large numbers of new technicians may increase the entry-level talent pool, but it will not immediately address shortages in positions requiring substantial field experience.
This is particularly relevant given the occupations already identified as potential bottlenecks. WindEurope highlights blade technicians, field engineers and pre-assembly support technicians among the roles where skills shortages are expected to become particularly significant as the European wind sector expands.
Every experienced technician who leaves the sector represents capability that cannot necessarily be replaced immediately by a newly trained worker. The increasing requirement for intermediate and advanced competencies identified by GWO and GWEC reinforces the importance of maintaining experienced personnel within the workforce.
For employers, the practical implication is that workforce development needs a longer-term perspective. Recruitment can fill vacancies. Training can build competencies. But sustainable workforce growth also depends on giving people opportunities to gain experience, progress into more specialised positions and remain within the industry.
There is another complication. Even when appropriately trained and experienced personnel exist, they may not necessarily be available in the country or project location where they are needed.
The offshore wind workforce is increasingly international. Projects are being developed across multiple markets, while experienced technicians and offshore specialists may need to move between countries and projects as demand changes.
Having enough qualified workers globally, however, does not necessarily mean those workers can be deployed wherever they are needed.
A case study included in the Global Wind Workforce Outlook 2025–2030 highlights cross-border deployment as one of the more complex workforce challenges facing the sector.
Moving personnel internationally can involve several overlapping requirements, including immigration rules, labour legislation, maritime regulations and insurance requirements.
These requirements mean that workforce availability cannot be assessed purely by looking at how many qualified technicians exist. Employers also need to determine whether those technicians can legally and practically be mobilised to a particular project.
A technically suitable candidate who cannot obtain the necessary documentation or meet local employment requirements within the required timeframe does not solve an immediate workforce shortage.
International mobilisation also means dealing with different regulatory environments. Requirements related to employment, immigration and offshore work can vary between jurisdictions, creating additional work for companies sourcing personnel internationally.
This becomes particularly relevant as offshore wind expands into new markets. The Global Wind Workforce Outlook notes that workforce readiness varies significantly between countries and that some emerging markets may have limited local workforce capacity when development begins.
Building local capability will therefore be important for the industry’s long-term development. But during periods of rapid construction, local recruitment may need to be complemented by experienced international personnel.
This creates an important role for international recruitment and crewing networks.
Instead of relying entirely on the labour market surrounding an individual project, employers can potentially access specialists from established maritime, offshore and wind markets. The practical challenge then becomes identifying candidates with transferable competencies and coordinating the requirements necessary for their deployment.
This is particularly relevant for specialised positions where the available local talent pool may be limited.
International recruitment should therefore not be viewed simply as a way of finding more candidates. Its value lies in connecting specific workforce demand in one market with suitable skills available elsewhere.
Continually reacting to shortages once a project requires personnel creates another problem: there may simply not be enough time to recruit, train and mobilise the necessary workforce.
The offshore wind industry is preparing for substantial growth, but its ability to deliver that growth will depend partly on its ability to build and maintain a sufficiently skilled workforce.
The scale of the challenge is already visible. GWO and GWEC estimate that global wind technician demand will increase from approximately 493,000 technicians in 2026 to 628,000 by 2030, while offshore wind is expected to represent a growing part of workforce requirements.
Europe faces a similar challenge. WindEurope expects wind industry employment to increase from approximately 442,800 jobs in 2024 to 607,000 by 2030, while shortages are expected in specific occupations such as blade technicians, field engineers and pre-assembly support technicians.
There is no single source from which this additional offshore wind workforce will emerge.
New entrants will need to be trained and given opportunities to build practical experience. Existing technicians will need pathways towards more advanced competencies. Workers from maritime, oil and gas, and other adjacent industries can provide transferable experience, while international recruitment can help connect available skills with projects facing local shortages.
The oil and gas transition demonstrates the potential. Analysis referenced by the IEA suggests that more than 90% of the UK oil and gas workforce has skills with medium to high transferability to other energy sectors, including offshore wind.
But access to talent alone will not solve the problem. Training takes time, practical experience takes longer, and international mobilisation introduces additional regulatory and logistical considerations. Workforce requirements therefore need to be considered before shortages begin affecting project schedules.
The shift should be from reactive recruitment towards long-term workforce planning. Recruitment, training, retention, skills transfer and international mobilisation need to be connected to the future project pipeline.
The offshore wind workforce gap is ultimately not just a recruitment problem. It is a question of how effectively the industry can develop, retain and mobilise the right skills as global offshore wind capacity expands.
Companies that start building those workforce pipelines early will be better positioned to secure the people they need when projects move from development into construction, commissioning and long-term operations.
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