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If you're wondering about a career change, try renewable energy.

It might help to spend quite a few years studying engineering, but the prospects for employment are looking rosy.

For Scotland, prospects for renewable energy jobs hang in the balance.

It's possible that its huge potential for providing weather galore for turbines of the wind or marine varieties is harnessed without many jobs being won.

The story of losing the race on wind turbines to Denmark and Germany is well-known, and now there are few jobs in building turbines.

The race to develop wind and tidal turbines is still one where Scottish companies have significant leads, and there is a need to ramp up capacity for the fabrication of the jackets on which offshore turbines sit.

This week saw the floating out of several such 500 tonne giants from Methil.

So the news today from Mitsubishi is encouraging.

It's putting 100 jobs into the centre for renewable engineering excellence set up last October by Scottish and Southern Energy along with Strathclyde University.

That shows it's not only Scots which recognise the expertise to be found. It's a big global player that could locate its research and development anywhere.

On-street plug-ins

And in announcing a partnership that will look at turbines, biomass and smarter grids, there was a significant statement from Alex Salmond - understandably delighted at the news - that it should help Scotland do some catching up on low-carbon transport.

Alexander Dennis in Falkirk is making progress on buses, but the networks needed to plug Scotland into an electric car revolution are nowhere to be seen.

And in cities dominated by tenements, with on-street parking, it's not clear how that on-street plug-in will work.

Another indicator of what's happening in the sector came from Hays Consulting.

On the very day of new unemployment figures showing Scotland in significantly more bother than the rest of the UK, it said that salaries in the renewables industry are on the way up because of skills shortages.

And while some accuse us in the media of spreading doom and gloom about jobs, there's a warning from PricewaterhouseCoopers that the negativity around graduate recruitment may be putting graduates off applying for jobs that DO exist - such as those in the accounting and consultancy firm itself.

Good fit

The jobs stories coming this week featured two other factors playing in the economy just now.

One was from the former Standard Life Bank, which was bought by Barclays last autumn.

It said then it was a good fit with its retail operations. Being quite small, this meant nearly 287,000 accounts and 78,000 mortgages.

But the fit was with the customers, not the staff.

After a six-month review, the whole Edinburgh operation is to close, taking 254 posts with it.

Now, there may be redeployment in other parts of the Barclays empire, notably including expanded operations in Glasgow's Barclays Wealth office.

And there was a hint that Scottish Development International, the government's inward investment agency, is actively looking for a company to take on those who have skills from Standard Life Bank.

But for 254 Edinburgh households, it's another harsh lesson in the world of corporate acquisition and consolidation.

A less harsh lesson comes from the collapse of Peter Scott in Hawick.

The textiles firm was placed in administration in May. With 18 people staying, 140 were laid off.

KPMG sold it on to Gloverall, and in a move that's all too rare for the Borders town, it's now looking to hire 60 people.

So there's a bit of gloom in some places, but it's not all doom.