Chief Minister Andrew Barr is hoping the head start the ACT has on training technicians to work on electric vehicles will provide the impetus needed for the Federal government to fund a $24 million Future Energy Skills Hub at the Canberra Institute of Technology's Fyshwick campus.
Although Canberra will face stiff competition for federal funding for the new education and training venture against similar operations planned in Queensland and NSW, the ACT government has pledged $500,000 to scope a major expansion at Fyshwick to triple the size of the existing lab and training rooms.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used the Fyshwick CIT EV lab for the launch of the $12.6 billion National Skills Agreement in October last year.
The Chief Minister said "it was no coincidence" that he had brought the Prime Minister to the campus laboratory last year "as a very deliberate strategy ... so they [the federal government] knew exactly what we were talking about" when the time came to pitch for funding for the new hub.
Last year, the ACT produced the country's first graduates in the new certificate III course in electric vehicles.
Around 55 apprentices currently are doing multi-day "immersive" training modules on electric vehicles at Fyshwick CIT this year - including fly-in-fly-out Tesla techs from all over the country - but the government's modelling shows it will need at least 1280 more electricians and 270 more electrical engineers and technicians to meet the growing demand.
The ACT's Zero Emissions Strategy, launched two years ago, has flagged a ban on the registration of combustion-engined light vehicles in the territory after 2035. It also expects zero emission vehicles to make up between 80-90 per cent of new vehicle registrations by 2030.
Skills Minister Chris Steel said the Fyshwick campus was "tapped out" in the number of electrotechnology places it can offer and needs an infrastructure investment. Over 1000 people are on the wait list to do the automotive technology course.
"We need to make sure that we've got more spaces to be able to train more people in that but also then look at expanding electrotechnology and some of the other trades that will be needed," he said.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the the ACT was "an early adopter" and could be at the "forefront of skills and training by working with local institutions to bridge the gap in skills needed to support Canberra's electrification".
"Emerging opportunities over the coming decades will create more jobs in renewables and increase demand for skilled workers. A Future Energy Skills Hub will ensure our workforce is prepared for the transition to the new economy," he said.
Mr Steel said electricians were at the core of the territory's electrification transition, but he also knows that any training "centre of excellence" would also need a lot of current electricians to transition out and become trainers for the next generation.
Australia has a national shortage of qualified electricians - a problem which has existed for decades - and any boost to trainee numbers will require employers - including hundreds of small electrical businesses, solar installers and new vehicle dealerships - to be given sufficient financial incentives to take on more apprentices as future technicians.
Mr Steel said "sparkies may have to come off the tools" to support the growth.
"There are large energy firms building renewables projects right around the country including here in the ACT," Mr Steel said.
"We are going to have to work with all players to make sure there are opportunities to support new students entering the workforce.
"There will always be attrition of existing electricians who are retiring; we will need to replace them as well as grow the entire workforce.
"So it's going to be a massive challenge, and it's going to happen over several decades, and the money that we are announcing today will support the start of that transition, not just in electricians but in all the other skills where we may even need to develop brand new qualifications to support the energy transition.
"It's going to be in automotive, it's going to be in battery-to-grid, it's going to be in other areas that are going to emerge that we don't even know of yet."
