"Continuing to poach from a talent pool that is drying up is no longer viable," Subsea UK chief executive Neil Gordon said.

He said companies must consider hiring people from different places than in the past.

"People with relevant or transferable skills but with no knowledge of the subsea sector, no prior experience within a business and a gap in their ability to do the job required is a major obstacle.

"We aim to help firms develop the additional support and infrastructure required to cross people over effectively so that they become fully functional in a subsea role as quickly as possible."

The transferable skills-focused toolkit for recruiting and retaining skilled workers is part of the Subsea Target program, which already has 15 companies on board.

"We have fully investigated what the industry needs in terms of skills and explored the existing programs, which work well for individual companies," Gordon said.

"Through a collaborative approach, we have shared best practice from industry and designed pan-industry programs, which deliver solutions in the short to medium-term."

The Subsea Target program has already helped participating companies through training measures including a subsea engineer conversion course, ex-military personnel-targeting transition training, , subsea online learning and apprenticeship schemes.