A former soldier has swapped foreign battlefields for the oil and gas industry, highlighting the vital role transferrable skills can play in addressing talent shortages within the energy sector.

Duncan Harwood spent five years in the armed forces, leading soldiers on tours of Iraq and Northern Ireland, along with managing construction sites in the Falkland Islands. The 32-year-old has now joined Aberdeen-headquartered independent energy consultancy ADIL as a subsea project engineer.

He believes many of his former colleagues could follow suit, with the recent revelation by the UK Government that it is reducing defence spending by cutting Army personnel from 102,000 to 82,000 over the next five years.

Tags: ADIL