Skills survey seeks to bridge Australia’s clean energy jobs gap

The federal government is launching a national energy jobs survey, as concerns mount that major labour shortages will derail Australia’s shift to renewables.

Businesses operating in the renewable energy, fuel and gas sectors are being called on to complete the online Australian Energy Employment Report (AEER), to help identify which parts of the industry are most in need of skills funding and support.

Federal energy minister Chris Bowen says the “long overdue” survey will be used to identify current and future workforce issues as Australia races to meet targets of 80% renewables and 43 per cent emissions reduction by 2030.

“Australia is going to need thousands of workers every year entering the energy sector to build the massive infrastructure projects our energy grid needs and meet our emissions reduction targets,” Bowen said.

“But we currently lack the data to forecast accurately how these jobs are changing.”

A lack of skilled workers looms

The federal government created the New Energy Apprenticeships in the budget last year, offering a $10,000 to 10,000 people training in the sector over the next four years. It also set up a $10 million new energy skills mentoring program.

But another 10,000 people isn’t enough, according to studies released last year and the government’s own figures.

Figures from Bowen’s office suggest it expects 60,000 new jobs could be created in regional Australia by 2025 in energy efficiency, management and electrification jobs.

The Australian Energy Market Operator says the construction workforce for scheduled renewable generation, storage and transmission projects must increase by 12,000 across Australia’s eastern states by 2025 and add another 31,000 extra workers to become a major exporter of green hydrogen.

The Institute for Sustainable Futures at UTS found Australia needs a minimum of 12,000 new entrants into the sector in the next two years, and three times that if it wants to realise its hydrogen superpower dreams. The country will need an extra 37,000 workers by 2023.

Net Zero Australia believes as many as 1.3 million jobs, mostly in regional Australia, could be created in the country’s drive to hit net zero by 2050.

And Swinburne University and the Victoria Hydrogen Hub warned in its Hydrogen Skills Roadmap last year the country is rapidly falling behind in the courses available to train and retrain the people required for the new gas industry, as hydrogen becomes less of a pipe dream and enters the mainstream.

Kerrin Pryor, project manager of the Hydrogen Skills Roadmap, says there is just one approved vocational hydrogen training course for gas workers available in Australia, pushed through with some urgency to support the 20 large-scale demonstration and pilot hydrogen projects underway.

Pryor says Australia’s energy transformation is at risk without these extra people.

The AEER survey result is expected to be released by the middle of this year and will guide new policy around skill development, such as boosting the number of women working in the renewable energy sector.