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Mind the Skills Gap

Category
AVK thinking
Topic
expertiseinnovationpartnerships
Date
11 February 2025
Read Time
6 min

As global data demands surge the data centre industry faces a critical challenge: a shortage of skilled workers. We look at the wider background to this issue, as well as how the AVK Academy is helping to develop a talent pipeline.

There’s little doubt about the world’s insatiable appetite for data. Statistics show that the total amount of data created, captured, copied and consumed globally was 149 zettabytes in 2024, a figure projected to reach 394 zettabytes by 2028.

From everyday actions like sending WhatsApp messages, uploading photos on the cloud, or joining Zoom calls, to the immense computing power required to drive AI advancements, our digital lives are fuelling an unprecedented need for infrastructure. All types of data centre clients from hyperscalers to start-ups, enterprises and GPU-as-a-service providers are looking for more data centre capacity. More data centres need to be built and as a result, governments are taking notice. In the UK, for example, data centres were officially recognised as critical national infrastructure last year.

Data centres need power to keep them running as well as people to build, run and maintain them. And herein lies the problem, summarised neatly by Dame Dawn Childs, chief executive of UK-based operator Pure Data Centre quoted in a BBC article recently, “There’s just not enough skilled workers to go around.”

While there may be some crossover with other types of engineering roles, everything from maintaining operating systems to scheduling preventative maintenance to managing critical and non-critical processes requires a very specific skillset. The talent pool of up-and-coming talent at the moment is just too shallow to replace those retiring from the profession and keep pace with the aforementioned development of new technologies and overall market demand. A report by techUK reveals that data centres have the potential to contribute an extra £44 billion to the UK economy, and an employment boost of 40,200 directly employed in operational roles by 2035 and 18,200 roles in data centre construction roles.

Here at AVK, we have decided to try and close the ‘skills gap’ by launching the AVK Academy last year, which is a dedicated space for both classroom learning, as well as honing the practical skills necessary for a career in data centre engineering and used by staff at all levels. Our Service Director Lynsey Partlow explains, “investing in people is our priority. Manufacturer training is great, but it doesn’t cover everything, so we decided that our Academy was going to be created for the industry, not one particular type of product.”

AVK Academy
AVK Academy Facilities

“There aren’t enough data centre engineers out there and there is a lot of competition for the same resource pool and we have to keep up with the work we were being presented with.” Being a data centre engineer requires a specific kind of skill set and where previously this might mean bolting on different expertise to the existing qualification held by mechanical or electrical engineers, what the Academy offers is a more formalised set-up for working in the data centre arena.

Recruitment for the Academy started in the summer of 2024, mostly in local colleges in South-East England and by last October the first intake of ‘Level 4’ engineers began their twelve-month training programme, aimed at those with little to no previous experience of power generation. This covers all the introductory knowledge, from things like electrical circuitry to other basic elements like isolation and safe panel entry as well as health and safety. Explains Lynsey, “We wanted to get those fundamentals nailed down in that [the trainees] knew the type of work environment that they were going to be expected to work safely within.”  AVK partners with third-party training centres to offer City & Guilds assured courses, meaning Level 4’s are fully certified on completion of their training.

In addition to an initial 12 weeks of purely classroom learning, there is a strong emphasis on practical experience throughout the training. Following AVK’s acquisition of control systems infrastructure provider ECS, a space was carved out for the Academy at ECS’s site in Lenham, Kent. Here, trainees can get to grips with state-of-the-art technology such as full-size Rolls Royce mtu engines and control system rigs. As well as internal trainers, the Academy has harnessed the experience of some external providers. “They give us the wraparound elements that we don’t necessarily have here at AVK. For example, Rolls Royce mtu are a great support for us” Lynsey says.

The site is also where AVK’s operational teams are based which was a smart move says Lynsey, “Even though they may be in the classroom, they’re seeing the other engineers coming in; they’re seeing how the company operates and the different workflows. And they’re establishing key relationships as well with our teams that are based in the office.”

There aren’t enough data centre engineers out there and there is a lot of competition for the same resource pool

The Academy is very much a joined-up approach to training as Lynsey continues, “We take them from Level 4 into Level 3, then to Level 2, and then ultimately into Level One. Whilst the Level 4s are training, our Level 3s are training to become Level 2s, and our level twos are training to become Level 1s: all within the Academy.”

One key element of the Academy’s success is the mentoring element that has been established as Lynsey reveals, “While we were training the Level 4s, we were also putting our Level 1 engineers through training on how to be a mentor, to coach and give feedback, so that they were prepared as to what was expected of them. So when the Level 4s have done their classroom-based learning, they then go out with their mentor, completing certain tasks and creating a portfolio for assessment. We needed to be sending out the Level 4s with people who knew how to support and coach them in the right way.”

From the first intake, aged between 18 and 22, who were employed by AVK throughout their training, the hope is to then create a sustained pipeline of qualified engineers. As the initial group go through their cycle of training, AVK can bring more in with a funnel of previous cohorts to support them.

As well as supporting new talent in the data centre industry, the Academy is also intended as a place of continuous learning and development as Lynsey adds, “Everyone, including our Level 1s, is enhancing their skills, not least because new technology is always coming on board and with new ways of working, there’s always the opportunity to sharpen their skills.

Currently, Lynsey and the team at AVK are preparing to start the process of recruiting the second cohort of data centre engineers during Q1 of 2025, in addition to expanding the Academy in the North of England, to capture talent from different geographical areas. And the plan is to share the knowledge with other departments too, “It could be anyone within AVK, from an administrator to an estimator. The industry can have quite a lot of acronyms and abbreviations and by taking, for instance, a product overview course, it will help everyone understand what their colleagues are talking about and be able to feel more confident. Bringing people on that journey with us just feels like the right thing to do.”