Revealed: The most in demand skills for the EV industry

EVera Recruitment has detailed the most in demand transferable skills sought by the electric vehicle and gigafactory industries.

From manufacturing sectors as diverse as toilet roll manufacturing and chocolate biscuit production, the skills are directly transferable to state-of-the-art battery assembly lines. The UK eMobility sector is on a trajectory and never before have such a diverse range of transferable skills been in demand.

The expected Tata Gigafactory in Somerset is a casing point. To work it will need the following resources; a good supply of energy, the materials to build the batteries and, critically, a skilled workforce.

Powder, paste and liquid handling skills are the mainstay of the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industries. Particularly the food and pharmaceutical sectors. The production facilities are kept clean and sterile to produce the very highest quality products. Not dissimilar to a gigafactory production line. When a modern factory of any sort starts up, it hoovers up much of the skilled workforce in the 20 – 30 mile radius, creating a doughnut effect. Businesses in that area who’ve lost their skilled workers then, in turn, have to recruit skilled workers from a further 20 – 30 mile radius creating a second doughnut. These doughnuts of skilled, highly paid workers ensure economic growth for the areas, some within a 60-mile radius from the original factory.

An electric vehicle battery cell production line has around 15 discreet processes that all exist in some form in other industries. A Kit-Kat for example is made up of wafers, chocolate powder and oils which are blended to make a paste, the chocolate is heated to the perfect viscosity and deposited on the biscuit before the foil wrapper is applied. In cylindrical battery production, powders (lithium and cobalt) are mixed in exacting ratios with liquids to make a paste which is deposited onto a foil to make the anode and cathode. The cathode and anode are then firmly and delicately rolled together to maximise the energy density of the battery.

The engineering skill in setting up and managing reel to reel machines to produce consistently rolled toilet rolls, where the tension is maintained even as the roll diameter changes is directly transferable into the production of cylindrical lithium-ion batteries where precision is critical to the efficiency of the battery.

EVera Recruitment, Europe’s only dedicated battery, electric vehicle and gigaplant recruitment consultancy, established to provide the talent required for the UK to become a global leader in battery cell manufacturing for the automotive industry. The company currently has hundreds of jobs at all levels for clients across the UK and beyond.

EVera Founder and CEO Steve Doyle said: “Somebody who understands part of the confectionary production process may have skills that are directly applicable to a specific phase of the battery manufacturing line. They will know that running a production line can be like fine-tuning a musical instrument. There is undoubtedly an art to it.”

“EVera Recruitment currently has hundreds of vacancies across a whole range of exciting sectors from the OEMs developing the next generation electric vehicles and the pioneers in hydrogen HGVs to the gigafactories who are gearing up to produce cutting edge batteries and the innovators developing new forms of eMobility. Now is a great time to work in the burgeoning EV sector and potentially realise a decent pay increase in this highly technical and competitive sector.”