There are up to 74,000 employees in the Cogent sector, which is 3% of all Scottish jobs. Over the longer term employment levels in the sector are projected to decline to 42,000 in 2014. A large proportion of overall employment in the upstream Oil and Gas industry is concentrated in the North and North East of Scotland. In central Scotland employment is clustered around the refinery at Grangemouth. Petrochemical and polymer industries are located across Stirlingshire to Fife and Strathclyde.

The nuclear industry is located in Dounreay (in decommissioning), power stations in Ayrshire, East Lothian and Dumfriesshire, plus a Ministry of Defence site in Faslane.

The majority of these employees work full-time, are male and are employed in medium to large organisations. There are around 1,500 workplaces. The average age of employees in the sector is 41 years. Only 5% of the sector in Scotland is aged 16-24 years, whilst 29% are aged 45-54 years. For more statistics on the age profile of the Scottish Cogent sector see equal opportunities issues. 98% of the Cogent workforce in Scotland is white.

The occupational profile of the sector is very different to that of the Scottish economy. 23% of employees are process, plant and machine operatives which is a higher proportion compared to other sectors in Scotland (10%). A high proportion (22%, compared to 15% in other sectors) of employees are working as professionals.

The average weekly full-time wage is £438, which is 23% higher than Scottish average.

There is a high percentage of skills gaps in this sector compared to others in the Scottish labour market with 31% of employers believing their employees are not fully proficient. Skills gaps are reported for team working, planning and organising. Compared to the rest of the Scottish economy, there are more hard-to-fill vacancies resulting from skills shortages. 6% of workplaces report skill shortages compared to other sectors in Scotland (5%)

The Cogent sector workforce in Scotland has a higher qualification level (68%) than the UK sector workforce (53%) and the overall Scottish workforce (57%).

81% of employers fund or arrange training for their staff compared to 62% of employers in other sectors. However, employers in other sectors are less likely to judge their staff not proficient. Off-the-job training is more common in the sector. Employers in the sector are less likely to participate in modern apprenticeships and other government funded training schemes compared to other sectors.

Workplaces in the sector are more likely to recruit graduates (36%) compared to other sectors (16%). A higher proportion of recruitment is from universities, than schools and further education institutions. On-going recruitment in the sector is essential to maintain core operations and for replacement of those retiring.

Expected future challenges for the sector include changes in the structure of the market (such as decommissioning and outsourcing where work is subcontracted to another organisation) and increasing competition from both within and outside Scotland.

Source: Cogent Sector Skill Needs Assessment 2006 and Futureskills Scotland 2005