OPITO meets critical skills demand with new High Voltage qualifications

As global energy systems diversify and wind power rapidly expands, employers face a growing challenge: a shortage of highly skilled personnel capable of operating, maintaining, and controlling increasingly complex electrical infrastructure driven by rising high-voltage requirements.

To bridge this gap, OPITO, the global, not-for-profit skills body, has launched a suite of High Voltage qualifications to set clear, industry-recognized training certificates and offer a progressive learning framework for these critical skills.

The skills gap holding back high voltage capability

OPITO’s decision to develop High Voltage qualifications was driven by clear changes unfolding across the energy sector. Growing electricity demand and the shift towards high-capacity, higher-voltage networks mean engineers are now required to work with greater electrical loads – and more complex switching operations – than ever before.

As the operating environment becomes more demanding, employers are competing for a limited pool of experienced high voltage personnel for a range of specialist roles, such as Senior Authorised Persons and Control Engineers

This skill pressure for these specialised roles has been intensified even further by the lack of an industry accepted qualifications. Without this, experienced personnel often have to repeat training or complete customised solutions when moving between organizations. This limits the mobility of the workforce and increases costs for employers.

Together, these challenges highlighted the need for an industry recognised and globally applicable qualification framework that allows personnel to transfer easily between organizations and OEMs for these specialised roles.

In response, OPITO has collaborated with industry experts to develop a standardized, industry recognised and globally applicable suite of High Voltage qualifications that will build the electrical expertise required to support the energy transition for decades to come.

OPITO’s High Voltage qualifications: what employers and learners can expect

OPITO’s High Voltage qualifications are designed as a structured learning programme for developing specialist high-voltage competence.

With each qualification representing around 280 guided learning hours, all learners begin with the High Voltage Training Certificate. Depending on their role, they then progress to either the Advanced Training Certificate or the Control Engineer Training Certificate.

“As learners move through the qualifications, the scenarios they face become progressively more complex”, explains Lucie Booth, Product Development Manager at OPITO.

“They start with core tasks such as performing isolations, interfacing with network operations, and applying switching programmes, that involve a single turbine on a wind farm before advancing into deeper planning, coordination, and decision-making activities, that involve interfacing with the network operator.”

OPITO’s High Voltage qualifications sit at SCQF (Scottish Credits and Qualifications Framework) Levels 7 and 8, matching the complexity of advanced technical programmes. They’re ideal for experienced electrical technicians ready to move into high-voltage specialist positions.

Creating a standardized, industry-led framework for high voltage competence

Combining a consistent technical foundation with industry-led design, OPITO’s High Voltage qualifications offer a progressive framework to support technicians, employers, and the wider energy transition.

The qualifications – informed by foresight work from ORE Catapult and developed collaboratively with a consortium of industry experts and employers – all share the same consistent technical foundation:

• Underpinned by the European Standard EN 50110 for the operation of electrical installations

• Aligned with the Safety, Health & Environment (SHE) standard from the Energy Networks Association (ENA)

• Formal SCQF credit rating to give learners recognized credit points that remain with them throughout their careers and support their lifelong learning journey.

While each certificate stands alone, the qualifications build progressively from authorised person through to senior authorised person through to control engineer.

The result is an internationally aligned framework developed with industry, for industry, and grounded in real operational needs.

“These qualifications address the specific skills shortage in specialised high voltage operations.,” says Booth. “They align the industry around a consistent approach and support the wider need for a skilled high voltage workforce, particularly within the wind sector for the specialist roles identified”.

A future-ready benchmark for building high voltage capability

With the launch of High Voltage qualifications, OPITO is providing employers with something the energy transition truly needs: a globally applicable, industry-recognized high voltage specialist pathway.

For experienced technicians, the qualifications offer transformative career progression into some of the most technically demanding roles in the energy sector.

And for the industry, OPITO’s progressive framework marks a significant step toward the safe, consistent, and scalable high voltage capability required to power the energy systems of the future.

Looking ahead, OPITO remains committed to diversifying its offerings as global safety-critical systems evolve.

“OPITO will continue to support the future of the energy transition with industry-recognized qualifications and standards that ensure the workforce is ready for the challenges ahead,” says Booth.

To learn more, please visit www.opito.com.