Hundreds of thousands of workers are needed to drive hundreds of major transport and energy projects across the country. Making sure they’re industry ready is essential.
Across the UK, a growing number of infrastructure projects are moving from planning into delivery, placing renewed focus on whether the sector has the people, skills and capacity needed to keep pace.
The government’s National Infrastructure Pipeline sets out 734 planned projects worth more than £718 billion over the next decade, with implementation expected to require an average workforce of around 700,000 people annually during the first five years of the programme.
These figures underline the scale of the challenge ahead, while also presenting an opportunity to consider not only how many people the sector needs, but how well they are being prepared for the realities of delivering major projects.
A key part of this conversation is how capability is defined. Skills shortages are often framed around specialist expertise, but progress depends on much more than technical proficiency alone. Communication, collaboration and adaptability are fundamental to turning knowledge into practical outcomes.
Infrastructure projects rarely sit neatly within a single discipline. Progress relies on professionals working across multiple technical areas, each with their own priorities, constraints and objectives. Moving projects forward requires individuals who can connect these perspectives and align them towards a common goal.
Even the strongest engineering or design solutions can struggle to gain traction if they are not communicated clearly, challenged constructively or understood beyond a single discipline. In many cases, outcomes are shaped as much by coordination and decision-making as by the quality of the underlying design.
Despite this, many of these attributes are still treated as assumptions rather than skills to be deliberately developed. Education and early training understandably focus on technical knowledge, whereas workplaces often expect new entrants to arrive already equipped to engage with clients, collaborate across disciplines and navigate commercial pressures.
In reality, these skills develop at different rates. Some people build confidence quickly through experience, while others benefit from more structured support. This reflects the diversity of routes into the sector as opposed to any weaknesses in the system.
Many of the qualities that underpin strong project performance are developed through exposure and practice rather than formal teaching. Stakeholder engagement, commercial awareness and professional judgement are often learned on live projects, despite being central to day-to-day delivery and decision-making.
Adaptability is a clear example. Infrastructure projects evolve constantly as designs change, risks emerge, funding priorities shift and external constraints come into play. The ability to respond to these changes while maintaining momentum is now a core requirement for anyone working in the sector.
Commercial awareness is equally important. Infrastructure professionals operate within constraints around cost, programme and risk, and understanding how design and engineering decisions influence these factors is an essential part of the role.
None of this diminishes the importance of technical expertise. Rather it reinforces that expertise. Specialist knowledge adds the most value when applied within the complex environments in which projects are planned, managed and delivered.
It also broadens how talent is viewed across the sector. Not every role requires the same strengths, and not every individual contributes in the same way. Some people bring deep technical understanding, while others excel at coordination, stakeholder engagement or connecting teams.
The strength of infrastructure delivery depends on this balance. Projects rarely thrive through a single, standard skillset. They progress when different capabilities complement one another in response to the complexity of the challenge.
This has significant implications for how people enter the sector. Recruitment is only one piece of the puzzle. Preparing individuals for the realities of project work is equally crucial, and there are already strong pathways helping to bridge that gap.
Apprenticeships provide one such route, combining technical learning with exposure to live projects and day-to-day responsibilities. Work experience in professional environments can offer similar benefits, helping individuals understand how projects operate in practice.
These opportunities matter because workplace readiness is not uniform. Some people develop confidence quickly, while others require more time and support. Both can become highly capable professionals when development is recognised as an ongoing process rather than something expected to be fully formed from the outset.
Leadership plays a key role in enabling that growth. The workforce is becoming increasingly diverse and multi-generational, bringing different expectations and approaches to work. In this environment, trust and clarity are essential. Teams perform best when individuals are given scope to work in ways that reflect their strengths, instead of being expected to conform to a single model of professional success.
This sense of autonomy can have a big impact on retention. When people are trusted to balance their responsibilities and work effectively, they are more likely to remain in the sector and continue contributing over the long term.
Ultimately, the effectiveness of infrastructure projects depends on more than technical knowledge alone. It relies on people being able to work across disciplines, respond to change, understand commercial realities and communicate clearly with those around them. As the sector prepares to deliver an ambitious pipeline of projects, these qualities should be recognised not as informal expectations, but as core professional skills underpinning long-term success.
Afshan Rasheed, UK Head of Environment at end-to-end sustainable global engineering and operating firm, Egis.
Image: Ricardo Gomez Angel / Unsplash
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