Europe, South Korea and China

Small incoming talent pool cannot meet demand. China’s Manufacturing Talent Development Planning Guide estimates that the overall talent needs for China’s clean energy industry in 2025 will be 1.2M people, with a talent gap of 1.03M people. The thousands of new graduates each year is insufficient to meet current demand. Furthermore, curriculum need to be updated to balance theory and practice to meet market needs. Intense Talent Warfare. It is not uncommon for workers in prominent companies to receive ~10 phone calls per day from headhunter companies. Companies are willing to pay 100% higher salary for experienced workers, and 30-50% for those with less experience. As a result, the fastest way for workers to get a raise is to switch companies, as internal increases are limited. For reference, CATL pays manufacturing and technical engineers monthly salaries of ¥15.6k and ¥20k while Gotion pays ¥9.9 and ¥10.2k respectively. “Talent Involution”: “Some large companies do not have a talent shortage. They would rather hire excess talent at high salaries than to let potential competitors hire them.” “Once talent leaves for larger scale companies, it is unlikely for them to return to smaller scale companies. This is also one of the reasons why a lot of small battery startup eventually shut down.” China continues its vocational training program. Since Aug 2020, China has already held 12 sessions of its Battery Production Engineer vocational program, with more than 1000 personnel receiving certification. Source: 时代财经

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