Upskilling at speed: Building an EPC workforce that delivers from day one

Posted: November 14, 2025

Slip the double bind with new skills

Even as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors have achieved historic returns, with the top 250 international contractors registering $499.7 billion in revenue in 2023, the prevailing mood in the industry is hardly celebratory.^[1] Rather, as EPCs size up the present and look to the future, they see themselves in a kind of double bind. They have to reckon with a market for services that demands increasingly complex projects delivered within ever-shortening timeframes. And they have to do this while relying on a shrinking group of experienced professionals. In the 2024 Associated General Contractors of America Workforce Survey, 90% of firms reported they were having a hard time finding workers to hire—while 80% of firms admitted they had a project that had to be cancelled, postponed or scaled back due to an insufficient labor force. ^[2]

So, it’s clear that the sector needs to develop its workforce. But the question then becomes a practical one: how to develop one’s labor force fast enough to keep up with the demand for projects and project delivery deadlines, yet comprehensively enough to maintain production standards.

Traditional onboarding cycles—measured in months—are no longer sustainable. To stay competitive, EPCs must rethink how they upskill and prepare employees, finding ways to reduce the “time to productivity” without compromising the safety or quality of their operations.

Workforce woes

The reasons for the labor shortage that EPC firms are confronting are various—a combination of demographic, geopolitical and economic factors. That might sound complicated, but it boils down to the fact that experienced team members are retiring faster than they can be replaced. This is, in part, because there are fewer young people. It is also because fewer young people are choosing jobs in the industry.

The hard numbers tell a clear story. Between 2017 and 2023, construction job vacancies in the United States almost doubled—from 200,000 to 380,000.^[3] This meant increased delays, and this past year, 45% of U.S. construction firms reported delays caused by labor shortages.^[4] And no influx of workers can be expected to fix this problem. Projections through 2040 among advanced economies show that the workforce either flatlines or declines due to aging.^[5]

Even as EPCs face a shortage of labor, they are challenged by increasingly complex projects, with demands from clients for faster delivery. To be able to realize these projects by their deadlines, EPCs need teams with specialist skills who can pivot with the market—whether that be working on green energy projects or with AI. But with employees staying at a company for years rather than decades, EPCs need to upskill their employees quickly or face a critical efficiency gap. To maintain profitability within the notoriously slim margins of the EPC industry, EPCs must turn to new training techniques.

Get beyond traditional training

To remedy increasing turnover and the loss of experienced personnel, as well as the entrance of what AVEVA EPC Industry Principal Cormac Ryan calls “next-gen” digital natives, EPCs are turning to digital tools. There is no other solution. At this moment in time, traditional training just takes too long. As the Journal of Commerce warns, “slow-moving digitalization is a threat to project sector progress.”^[6] And this is very much the case when it comes to onboarding new EPC team members.   

With a traditional training model, onboarding cycles can last six to twelve months. New hires must trudge across the organization to learn skills and acquire knowledge that exist in silos across the enterprise. Especially within the accelerated delivery expectations of the current industry, even half a year is a long time for teams to wait for their members to get up to speed. At the low margins with which EPCs operate, everyone needs to be contributing as soon as possible. As McKinsey notes, too often firms prioritize meeting an immediate deadline over taking the time to upskill workers, which would enable future efficiency and productivity gains.^[7]

What if, instead of the agonizing process of traditional onboarding, the new EPC recruit, say a novice piping designer, had access to a digital twin that meant she had already laid digital pipes throughout a range of challenging scenarios—before ever coming on site? Imagine that, with a few keystrokes, she has instant digital access to protocols for all work processes—as well as the ability to correspond with live, remote experts when she’s uncertain about the best practices. Firms can ramp up their overall efficiency significantly by accelerating new recruits’ “time-to-productivity.” Simulation and digital twins—safe, immersive ways to learn complex systems—can be key elements in this process, ensuring safety and reducing delays across EPC organizations.

Upskilling with a little help from technology

Digital twins and simulation modules are but two digital tools in a great array of technology that can help upskill your workforce. Of course, technology is not enough on its own—you need a holistic strategy. However, with the right investment in institutional knowledge and an AI-driven future, you can equip your newest team members with the know-how to achieve results almost right away.

Don’t let the knowledge retire with your most experienced workers. Your experienced staff are a great resource for the next generation—and enterprises have to set up systems to enable these team members to transmit that knowledge to their successors. With digital knowledge hubs, you can eliminate the silos that plagued traditional training and create a single, accessible site where workers have on-demand access to best practices and standards.

But it’s not only about the past. It’s also about the future. AI copilots and assistants can help guide new employees through unfamiliar tasks in real time—as well as improve the efficiency of expert employees. Ryan notes, “everybody and their dog is looking at AI and thinking it can cure things.” However, it’s about deploying it precisely. For example, in the AVEVA™ E3D Design tool, there is an AI engine that will automatically root pipe for the designer.

“We're not displacing the need for a piping designer—you still need a piping designer,” Ryan says. “But the same piping designer can do more than they would have before from an efficiency perspective, using AI and machine learning.”

The goal: onboarding in weeks, not months

It’s clear that workforce training has to balance demands for current skills, while preparing these same team members for an AI-driven future. The EPC firms that master accelerated upskilling will not only be able to confidently tackle the problems of today but also fortify themselves for tomorrow’s uncertainties. They’ll not only establish an agile and resilient workforce now, but, more importantly, know that they have the protocols in place to reproduce the teams they need—no matter what happens.

Consider: What if EPCs could train their people to be project-ready not in months, but in weeks? That future may already be closer than we think.

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^{[1] Emell Adolphus and Jonathan Keller, “Contractors Balance Higher Risks”, ENR: The Top 250. 16 September 2024. 52.
[2] “2024 AGC & ARCORO Workforce Survey,”28 August 2024. https://news.agc.org/labor-hr/new-survey-shows-how-nations-failure-to-invest-in-construction-education-training-programs-makes-it-hard-for-firms-to-build/
[3] Jan Mischke, Kevin Stokvis, Koen Vermeltfoort, and Birgit Biemans, “Delivering on construction productivity is no longer optional,” McKinsey. 9 August 2024. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/delivering-on-construction-productivity-is-no-longer-optional
[4] “New Survey Finds Construction Workforce Shortages Are Leading Cause Of Project Delays As Immigration Enforcement Affects Nearly 1/3 Of Firms,” AGC. 28 August 2025. https://news.agc.org/workforce-development/workforce-shortages-delay-projects/
[5] Jan Mischke, Kevin Stokvis, Koen Vermeltfoort, and Birgit Biemans, “Delivering on construction productivity is no longer optional,” McKinsey. 9 August 2024. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/delivering-on-construction-productivity-is-no-longer-optional
[6] Felicity Landon, “Slow-moving digitalization is threat to project sector progress, EPCs warn,” Journal of Commerce. 18 August 2025. https://www.joc.com/article/slow-moving-digitalization-is-threat-to-project-sector-progress-epcs-warn-6064770.
[7] Jan Mischke, Kevin Stokvis, Koen Vermeltfoort, and Birgit Biemans, “Delivering on construction productivity is no longer optional,” McKinsey. 9 August 2024. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/delivering-on-construction-productivity-is-no-longer-optional}