Scotland: Re-skilling through the Oil and Gas Transition Training Fund

The Scottish Oil and Gas Transition Training Fund (2016–2019) provided grants of up to £4,000 to help workers in the declining oil and gas sector transition to new employment. Managed by Skills Development Scotland (SDS), the program supported 4,272 workers, achieving high employment rates, although approximately half of those re-employed remained within the oil and gas industry. The program's success informed the subsequent £25 million National Transition Training Fund launched in 2020 to support workers in declining sectors and promote green jobs for a net-zero economy.

• The Oil and Gas Transition Training Fund operated from February 2016 to March 2019 with a budget of £12 million, providing grants up to £4,000 per worker for reskilling. The program surpassed its goal of re-employing 1,000 workers annually, ultimately helping 4,272 people.
• While the program achieved high employment rates among participants—with one study finding 89% were employed—a significant portion of these workers did not transition out of their original industry, with between 47% and 53% remaining in oil and gas jobs.
• The program utilized two training pathways: an 'individual route' tailored to the applicant's wishes and labor market needs, and a 'procured route' targeting specific skills shortages in fields such as wind turbine engineering, railway engineering, welding, and truck driving.
• The initiative served as a precursor to the £25 million National Transition Training Fund launched in October 2020, which expands the scope to other declining sectors like aviation and specifically aims to increase the supply of workers for green jobs to support a net-zero economy.
• Several challenges hindered the program's effectiveness, including a lack of funding for overhead costs like travel and food, unrealistic salary expectations from workers accustomed to high oil and gas wages, and insufficient data for long-term career tracking due to a low voluntary response rate of 36%.

APA

World Resources Institute (2021). Scotland: Re-skilling through the Oil and Gas Transition Training Fund. https://www.wri.org/snapshots/scotland-re-skilling-through-oil-and-gas-transition-training-fund

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Scotland: Re-skilling through the Oil and Gas Transition Training Fund. 2021. https://www.wri.org/snapshots/scotland-re-skilling-through-oil-and-gas-transition-training-fund.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Scotland: Re-skilling through the Oil and Gas Transition Training Fund |date=1 April 2021 |url=https://www.wri.org/snapshots/scotland-re-skilling-through-oil-and-gas-transition-training-fund |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2021scotland, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Scotland: Re-skilling through the Oil and Gas Transition Training Fund}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2021}, month = apr, url = {https://www.wri.org/snapshots/scotland-re-skilling-through-oil-and-gas-transition-training-fund}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }