The Clean Energy Council (CEC) has released a new report, Skilling the Energy Transition, ahead of the Federal Government’s National Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra.
The report makes six recommendations to fix the skills and labour challenges that could throttle the success of Australia’s clean energy transition unless urgently addressed.
Their six recommendations include:
- Calibrating higher education to meet the needs of clean energy interests
- Anticipating the future needs for the clean energy workforce
- Raising the profile of the clean energy sector as an opportunity for all Australians
- Establishing an authority to manage the clean energy transition
- Enhancing the Vocational Education and Training Sector’s capacity to understand and meet the demands of industry
- Establishing Australia’s reputation abroad as a global centre for clean energy expertise
Clean Energy Council Chief Executive, Kane Thornton, said the forthcoming transition to renewable energy will require an ‘enormous’ amount of workers.
“This is the key decade, not only for Australia’s emissions reduction efforts but also in developing the workforce to drive this economy-wide change,” Ms Thornton said.
“Now is the time to take stock and put in place measures to ensure that people and jobs are a focus of Australia’s clean energy transition.”
“Delivering this transformation will require an enormous number of workers – according to Reputex’s modelling of the ALP’s Powering Australia policy platform, there could be 604,000 additional direct and indirect jobs created by 2030.
“This presents an enormous opportunity but comes at a time where the existing modest workforce of 30,000 is riddled with challenges, gaps, and unmet demand from industry,” said Thornton.”
You can read the full Skilling the Energy Transition report at: cleanenergycouncil.org.au/skillingtheenergytransition
