Why the UK Should Establish Green-Skilled Mobility Partnerships with Bangladesh, India, and Kenya

The UK is facing skilled workforce shortages which are constraining the achievement of its Clean Energy Mission and “net zero” emissions. Multiple responses to a recent government inquiry on the topic suggested that workforce shortages are already driving up costs, leading to project delays and disincentivising investment. While domestic pipelines will need to rapidly expand to meet these workforce shortages, there will likely be an interim shortfall, some of which will need to be filled through skilled labour immigration.

In a recent paper, we at CGD outlined the extent to which skilled immigrants already contribute to the UK’s green-skilled workforce. Many of these workers come from countries of strategic importance to the UK. This note, written with colleagues from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) UK, outlines why the UK should develop green-skilled mobility partnerships with three such countries: Bangladesh, India, and Kenya.

Skilled migrants are already supporting the UK’s green transition

In October, the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) released its long-awaited Clean Energy Jobs Plan. The clean energy workforce will need to grow by 400,000 workers (an approximate doubling), with particular demand in 31 occupations, from welders and bricklayers to electrical engineers and quantity surveyors. Employment in these occupations will need to rise by at least 50 percent, and in several cases by as much as 200 percent; by 2030, between 89,000 and 110,000 new workers will be needed (Figure 1). (The ‘clean energy workforce’ can broadly be understood to be workers performing tasks needed for decarbonisation; in this paper we focus on roles identified by DESNZ.)

Figure 1. Increase in UK Clean Energy Mission employment needed, 2023-2030

However, finding skilled workers domestically will be challenging. Across the 31 occupations, nearly 55 percent of vacancies are reported to be “hard to fill” due to skills shortages. Domestic workforce supply is limited by training capacity, demographic shortfalls, unpredictable project pipelines, inadequate state support for employers taking on apprenticeships, and other factors.

It is therefore unsurprising that skilled labour migration has already contributed significantly to the supply of workers into these 31 occupations; in the last four years, nearly 41,000 workers have arrived. Despite this flow, employers are still struggling with skill shortages. Nearly a quarter of respondents to the recent government inquiry asked for immigration rules to be loosened to allow bottlenecks to be filled. The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) is now considering whether key green-skilled roles should be added to the new Temporary Shortage List.

Why the UK should develop green-skilled mobility partnerships...

To date, the UK has relied on pure recruitment—attracting green-skilled workers and granting them Skilled Worker visas. We argue that this approach will be insufficient in future for two reasons. Firstly, the international labour market for green-skilled workers is already highly competitive and will become even more so. Skilled migrants will have their pick of destination markets, and the UK will need to improve its offer. Secondly, pure recruitment risks depriving migrant countries of origin of the workers needed to meet their own decarbonisation goals. Take the Philippines, for example: workforce shortages are a key decarbonisation constraint, exacerbated by the emigration of relevant professionals. The UK should care about this: decarbonisation is a global public good, and holes caused elsewhere may more than offset successes in the UK.

Therefore, CGD and IOM have long argued that such skilled mobility should be promoted as part of broader partnerships which link skills development and migration to meet global workforce challenges. In these partnerships, the UK would invest to improve the quality and capacity of training institutions in the country of origin, ensuring that increasingly skilled trainees are placed with employers at home and in the UK.

Engaging in such partnerships would have a range of benefits. They create a reliable and sustainable pipeline of talent; offset concerns about “brain drain”; enhance trade and foreign policy relationships by showing that the UK prioritises the benefit they receive from migration; and ensure that the UK contributes to the objectives of the Global Compact for Migration, 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and other international agreements.

Similar countries are already undertaking such partnerships. Australia and India, for example, are collaborating to train 2,000 Indian solar technicians to international standards. The partnership is expected to support Australian needs while also supporting the development of India’s training capacities to provide “a talent pool for roles across the world”. The UK could do the same, leveraging its new focus on technical support and systems development. Existing programmes, notably the Green and Inclusive Growth Centre of Expertise, could even support green skills development abroad.

... with Bangladesh, India, and Kenya

We propose that the UK should explore partnerships with three countries—Bangladesh, India, and Kenya—for three main reasons. Firstly, they already send green-skilled workers to the UK (Figure 2). In the last four and a half years, more than 10,000 Indian workers moved to support the 31 occupations identified by DESNZ (over a quarter of all migrants into these occupations), many in high-skilled roles such as electrical and civil engineers. In the same period, 411 Bangladeshis moved, mostly in bricklaying, carpentry, and roofing; and 78 Kenyans, with over half in electrical or engineering occupations.

Figure 2. Visas for Clean Energy Mission priority occupations from Bangladesh, India, and Kenya, 2021-2025

Secondly, they share several characteristics that would make them good partners. They have large un- or under-employed youth populations in need of up-skilling; significant decarbonisation goals which require skilled labour; and a stated desire to train people to support destination markets as an economic development strategy. These countries are actively seeking migration partnerships: it is possible that the UK can obtain an early-mover advantage by looking to guide training systems towards supply for its own labour market needs. Pertinently, the UK is already engaged in relevant projects in all three countries.

Thirdly, they are members of the Commonwealth. The UK Government has pledged to support Commonwealth countries with economic growth, climate change, and skills. Due to colonial legacies, the education systems mirror the UK’s own, and English language levels are high. In 2024/25, Bangladeshi takers of the IELTS English language test scored an average of 6.0 or more (equivalent to B2), while Indian and Kenyan takers scored an average of 6.5 or more (equivalent to B2 or C1).

These are not the only countries with which the UK could establish training and migration partnerships. Others, such as the Philippines or Morocco, also have strong cases. But the above factors —especially the fact of current recruitment to the UK, the strong existing political buy-in from country of origin governments, and existing UK engagement—mean that Bangladesh, India, and Kenya are worth prioritising. Positive path dependencies have already been put in place: there are existing diaspora communities and employer experience for all three countries, on which UK policy can build.

On the UK side, a partnership could be anchored through employer-led sector bodies (as is already being widely piloted in Germany) and coordinated through the national skills architecture, especially via the new priority-setting function supplied by Skills England. This can ensure that any training is aligned with UK occupational standards and employer demand.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the world’s largest migrant origin countries; over 4 percent of its population was abroad in 2024, with 80 percent moving to the Gulf, and more than 60 percent employed in construction.

Structure of the training system

Over the past ten years, Bangladesh’s technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system has adopted competency-based training and assessment. The Bangladesh Technical Education Board (BTEB) implements the National Technical and Vocational Qualifications Framework (NTVQF), and the National Skills Development Authority (NSDA) now coordinates skills policy and standards.

• Electrical installation and maintenance programmes are delivered through Competency-Based Training and Assessment at NTVQF Levels 2 and 3, with competency standards approved by BTEB and NSDA. Within NTVQF, Levels 2-3 are described as semi-skilled and skilled worker levels, below supervisor and diploma levels. This roughly corresponds to the band of RQF Levels 2-3, where core UK craft trades sit, though the breadth and depth of the UK electrician curriculum is typically larger.
• Welding is also delivered through competency-based training, with competency standards for NTVQF Levels 1-4.
• Line workers are largely trained in-house by the power utilities. These courses sit on top of basic TVET electrical skills (often NTVQF Level 1–2 in electrical installation) and include: pole climbing and rescue, basic overhead line construction, maintenance and fault response, safety procedures, and, in some cases, solar home system work.

This architecture is broadly comparable to the UK’s regulated, outcomes-based approach, but mutual recognition is not automatic. Green-skilled workers would need to be provided with top-up training to meet UK standards. Overseas-qualified electricians must first obtain an Ecctis Industry Skills Statement and then complete the Electrotechnical Experienced Worker Assessment before they can apply for an ECS gold card, with additional training often required where gaps are identified.

Green skills investment

There are already large green skills development programmes which could be leveraged for mobility. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has financed large-scale training and institution-building through its "Skills for Employment Investment Program” (SEIP), including in construction and light engineering. A total of 300,000 workers were trained and certified by 2019, and up to 800,000 reported by 2023. Regular surveys of graduates have documented job placement rates of 70 percent. The World Bank’s “Skills and Training Enhancement Project” (STEP) has strengthened selected public and private institutions and embedded recognition of prior learning (RPL). The EU-funded, International Labour Organization (ILO)-implemented, “Skills-21” initiative has supported qualifications framework development and mass assessor training. And GIZ has long worked on modernising TVET to support green skills development, including collaborating with Bangladesh’s Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA) on rooftop solar.

Migration relationship

Bangladesh is already actively seeking to send workers overseas. Training for international labour markets is conducted by the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), which operates 110 technical training centres across the country. Reports suggest, however, that shortages of both qualified trainers and equipment limit training capacity even where centres have been built: this could be a valuable area in which the UK could provide targeted support.

Diplomatically, Bangladesh is already a UK partner of consequence. The fifth UK-Bangladesh Strategic Dialogue in 2023 created a Joint Working Group on migration and returns; both countries must put in place formal, agreed, rules for how migration-related cases are handled in practice, especially around returns.

Bangladesh has also signalled an interest in skills mobility partnerships. In July 2024, a Bangladesh-EU Talent Partnership was launched, aligning training, language, and recruitment for legal mobility to EU member states. Under the Partnership, the ILO is coordinating networks of training providers to deliver electrical and mechanical skills courses alongside embedded language training.

Bangladesh continues to update bilateral recruitment frameworks with Gulf states. Saudi Arabia’s Skills Verification Program is raising competency requirements for trades such as electrical and mechanical work, prompting Bangladeshi authorities to expand skills training and certification for outbound workers. As of December 2025, 26 of BMET’s technical training centres were authorised to conduct SVP tests across 73 trade occupations. That same push towards formally assessed, internationally benchmarked skills could also support future skills partnerships with countries like the UK.

A partnership with Bangladesh could be coordinated via the tripartite Industry Skills Councils (ISCs) established to guide training and accreditation in priority sectors. These could provide an institutional space for coordination with Bangladeshi training providers, improvements to competency standards, and buildout of assessment capacity. Two ISCs (those focused on light engineering and construction) are most likely to be relevant.

India

India has ambitious clean energy targets. Next year, they want 39 percent of their power coming from clean sources, up to 44 percent by 2032. To do this, they aim to build 300GW of solar capacity by 2030, with 123GW installed by August 2025. Its flagship Surya Ghar programme, launched in 2024, aims to build 10 million residential rooftop systems by the end of 2027.

Structure of the training system

Curriculum development and delivery of training are overseen by the Skill Council for Green Jobs (SCGJ). As of 2023, it aimed to train one million workers by 2030 across a broad range of clean energy occupations. The SCGJ supplements the broader work of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC); both have arms deliberately training workers to international standards in collaboration with partner countries.

Training in India is delivered within the competency-based ten-level National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF). NSQF standards are not yet directly mappable to the UK’s Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF). A new mutual recognition agreement, doing for TVET what a 2022 UK-India agreement did for higher education, could ease credential recognition. Otherwise, the NSQF’s standards should be relatively easily recognised, although top-up training may be required to bring workers’ competencies to necessary levels. This would be likely to be provided in the UK through existing recognition systems (such as those run by City and Guilds) but could also be delivered through partnerships with accreditation centres or bespoke recognition processes in India.

• Bricklayers and masons are trained under a one-year competency-based programme at NSQF level 3. Relatively large numbers of Indian workers (nearly 140 in 2023 Q4) already migrate to the UK. This compares to the UK’s roughly two-year apprenticeship; a short period of top-up training, including in cavity construction for insulation, would be likely to be needed to bridge standards.
• Welders are trained to NSQF level 3 over a one -year curriculum. By comparison, the intermediate welding apprenticeship delivered in the UK takes 18 months. Providing bridging training to experienced welders may take up to a month prior to completion of job knowledge and procedure tests.
• Lines-workers are trained to NSQF level 4 over a two-year curriculum (six months less than the UK curriculum). Additional UK-specific training related to, for example, highway engagement and National Grid protocols would be needed, and might take up to around two months.

Green skills investment

India can offer a substantial scale of recruitment. The most recent data suggests that as of 2022, MSDE-affiliated Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) were training over 400,000 electricians across over 12,000 ITIs; nearly 1,200 lines-workers across 47 ITIs; and around 74,000 welders across nearly 3,000 ITIs, with significant additional training capacity available. India grades ITIs for training excellence and rates a small number as “Model ITIs”: many of these have core specialities, and could be approached for scaling. Some ITIs, such as in Telengana, are being deliberately supported in upgrading and orienting to international labour markets. There is also a pool of 33 National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs) under the direct control of the MSDE, seven of which have been prepared for training for international labour markets. With support in connections to UK-based employers, an international recruitment partnership could be relatively easily established: Germany, for example, has already established a partnership with the NSTI in Hyderabad to support renewable energy-related training (in areas such as solar PV installation) to global competency standards, also including the development of bridging courses to train workers to the needs of industry within Germany.

This is especially the case given existing ties. The British Council has longstanding operations in India, including in engineering. This has included the embedding of UK technical experts into skill-sharing efforts through the India-UK PACT decarbonisation programme. The UK Department for Business and Trade (DBT) also organised a skill-focused trade mission to India in March 2025; and the UK can benefit from ongoing World Bank engagement in raising training quality across sectors with decarbonisation relevance.

Migration relationship

India is currently a UK diplomatic priority; the UK-India Roadmap 2030 states joint intentions to deepen the existing Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. A migration and mobility partnership (thus far limited to higher education) has been in place since 2021—although efforts by India to deepen it amidst 2025’s trade talks did not result in visa relaxations in the face of UK political difficulties.

At the same time, India is actively prioritising labour mobility partnerships in international negotiations. In late 2025, India proposed reforms to its overseas mobility legislation to improve cross-governmental structures to manage emigration. Training and recruitment is likely to be best managed through a partnership with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), which manages both the NSDC and SCGJ agencies. In addition, the Ministry of External Affairs manages a list of approved recruitment agents under the 1983 Emigration Act (itself in the process of being updated): between the large network of training providers and vetted recruiters, reliable infrastructure is already in place.

Kenya

Kenya aims to achieve universal electricity access by 2030, with almost all generation by renewable sources, and to become a regional leader in renewable power generation, especially in hydropower and solar photovoltaics.

Structure of the training system

Kenya’s TVET system is governed by the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVETA), which oversees curriculum development and quality assurance. They deliver training within the framework of the ten-level Kenya National Qualifications Framework (KNQF). This is not directly mappable to the UK’s RQF, but qualifications delivered under it should be benchmarkable by UK Education and Training National Information Centre (ENIC). In addition, Kenya has developed the National Qualifications Classification Standard, deliberately based on the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), in order to ensure qualification comparability across borders. This should make mapping of credentials to UK standards easier.

Data availability on capacity in the Kenyan TVET system is relatively limited, with little availability at the more granular level. At the aggregate level, however, Kenya’s TVET sector is growing rapidly. In 2023, enrolment expanded 14.3 percent to over 640,000 students across more than 2,500 training institutions. Kenya would likely need significantly more support than India or Bangladesh, which have much more experience in training and labour migration engagement.

Kenya’s training is increasingly being geared towards international labour markets, but specific occupational qualifications would still need bridging training to be provided to offer parity with UK qualifications.

• Electricians are trained at NQF levels 4 and 5 (artisan / craft), with a diploma offering higher skills available at level 6. Levels 4-5 require approximately three years of training and qualify a trainee to conduct multi-phase installations and testing; level 6, which may require a further 2-3 years, allows graduates to manage sites, conduct commissioning, and manage documentation. Supplementary training modules on solar PV installation may take around three months. Bridge training to UK standards would be likely to need to incorporate training for inspection and testing and for Microgeneration Certification Scheme standards; this may require up to two months of top-up classes.
• Welders are trained at NQF levels 4 and 5, typically requiring one-two years. Further specialist training is provided by the National Industrial Training Authority up to level 6 (e.g., in pipe welding); additional specialist grades typically take around six months. Further training to UK standards would be likely to require up to around one month.

Green skills investment

A strategic partnership was agreed between the UK and Kenya in 2020; from 2025-2030, it will be focused on green growth, science and technology, and job creation. The British Council has been a key partner in Kenya’s TVET reform agenda, working closely with the State Department for Vocational and Technical Training and TVETA. Its programmes have supported the transition to competency-based education and training (CBET); modernised curricula in priority sectors such as renewable energy and construction; and strengthened institutional capacity through industry-college linkages and instructor training. The British Council’s Going Global Partnerships initiative has also fostered collaboration, laying early groundwork for mutual recognition of qualifications and pathways for skills mobility.

Kenya has also benefited from two major World Bank TVET projects: EASTRIP, improving standards in its marine, highway infrastructure, and geothermal sectors; and NYOTA, giving access to TVET to hundreds of thousands of youth (stakeholders are already working to connect NYOTA youth with international labour markets). The UK could build on these projects and existing engagements to select training centres that currently perform well, helping them to expand or to share their expertise with peers. Examples of institutions that could provide viable first partnerships include the KenGen Geothermal Training Centre, a utility-run institute with longstanding programmes in multiple engineering disciplines, and the Institute of Energy Studies and Research, a centre run by Kenya Power offering training in high-voltage overhead lines.

Migration relationship

With over 200,000 workers abroad in 2023 (primarily to Gulf countries) and a growing pool of skilled workers, Kenya presents a promising opportunity for collaboration with the UK. Kenya has a stated aim of sending one million workers abroad per year until 2028. In 2024, Kenya agreed a migration partnership with Germany, warmly welcomed by President Ruto with hopes of hundreds of thousands moving. Kenya is now actively seeking further agreements, including with Canada. In 2023 it established a National Policy on Labour Migration, seeking to better coordinate skills mappings, training provision, and international placements, and to establish bilateral labour migration agreements. In 2024 it published a National Strategy on Skills Development for Labour Mobility.

Coordination of training could be achieved via Kenya’s National Sector Skills Committees, aligning standards and curricula. These bodies are already intended to align training in Kenya with global labour market needs. Kenya’s implementation of its Recognition of Prior Learning policy could also be supported to help experienced workers, including those trained informally, to enter an skills mobility partnership through assessments and targeted upskilling, reducing training time.

Kenya has already established recruitment agencies that facilitate the deployment of workers abroad under the National Employment Authority. These agencies operate under the regulations set by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, ensuring compliance with international labour standards. A network of 70 specialised institutions providing pre-departure training to improve migrants’ knowledge of rights has also been established.

Its standards, and institutions, are converging towards international reference points to facilitate labour mobility. What’s more, the UK and Kenya have previously agreed a bilateral agreement on healthcare workforce recruitment and collaboration: a similar initiative could be developed for green transition-relevant sectors.

Conclusion

The UK needs more skilled workers to meet its decarbonisation goals. While the UK should do everything it can to increase domestic training capacity, it is highly unlikely that pipelines can scale up fast enough. As the Industrial Strategy and the House of Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee have recognised, migration policy will need to be part of the policy response.

Establishing training and migration partnerships with countries like Bangladesh, India, and Kenya can help the UK fill its skill gaps in the short-term and (if needed) structurally, while supporting partners to build up their own green-skilled workforce in the long-term. These partners are already eager to form partnerships. The UK, meanwhile, already has the tools necessary to implement them: it has the longstanding expertise and relationships of the British Council; a deep ecosystem of education standard-setting and testing actors with global presence; and (despite cuts to its official development assistance budget) relevant Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) programming already underway. It also now has an institutional setup that could help coordinate green-skilled mobility partnerships in the new body of Skills England.

The lesson is to anchor recruitment and partnerships to skill needs under the UK’s green industrial strategy; move early to create training supply in advance; and establish positive path dependencies (in which skill development is supported, assessment capacity is prepared in advance, and recruitment integrity is ensured throughout) before these skilled labour markets are tapped by faster-moving countries of destination. The next step should be to conduct feasibility studies for mobility partnerships, with focus occupations chosen in collaboration between DESNZ, the FCDO, and other relevant departments.

The authors thank the following reviewers: Jenniffer Dew; Lawrence Huang; Charles Kenny; Fabio Jimenez; Madeleine Page; and the IOM country offices in Bangladesh, India, and Kenya. Any errors are the authors’ own.