The SEC is pleased to support the Government in its unprecedented investment of $91 million into skilling the clean energy workforce. A Future Made in Australia is one built on the renewable energy sector and hinges on the technical skill trades workforce. This makes addressing the worker deficit in the renewable energy sector of critical importance.

The Smart Energy Council (SEC) is the peak independent body for Australia’s smart energy industry, representing over 1,300 residential, commercial, renewable hydrogen and large-scale renewable generation and storage companies, smart transport firms as well as over 2,000 installers through our Smart Installer program.

Our response draws heavily from the SEC’s own Gender Action Plan work and supports the findings and recommendations of the recent report by the Electrical Trades Union and Per Capita: Charged Up.

Key recommendations:

• Allocate public funding for projects based on a business’s demonstrated investment into gender parity, such as having a gender parity community of practice and ensuring appropriate culture, infrastructure and flexibility accommodate women in technical trades.
• Redesign apprenticeships to include more effective support programs and a stronger connection to industry employment pathways.
• Invest into existing education pathways to emphasise renewable energy careers and support qualified professionals in educating the next generation of skilled trades people.

SEC’s Gender Action Plan

Since 2023, our organisation has promoted and encouraged other renewable energy organisations to commit to delivering key goals to increase women’s participation in our industry. These goals include creating respectful workplaces by encouraging cultural shift to embed a gender lens in business decision-making, fostering an industry that is inclusive and fit for purpose, so it can attract and retain women and centre women’s determination to ensure quality employment outcomes and economic opportunities are meaningful and local to women around Australia.

The SEC has pursued these goals through the following initiatives to date:

• ‘Men as Gender Leaders’ program – Enhance our male-dominated industry to be safer, more attractive, and inclusive for women, while branding successful program graduates as gender-inclusive leaders.
• Public communications campaign – to empower businesses to promote their leadership role in gender diversity and inclusion.
• Establish a Community of practice6 and invite other organisations to join.
• Partnering with TABOO to provide free menstrual products for attendees at our Conference & Exhibitions.

Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA), predicts that nationally we will require “two million workers in building and engineering trades by 2050 to prepare Australia’s energy grid and industrial base for net zero”. This includes 53,000 to 84,000 more electricians to electrify the National Electricity Market and reaching state and federal renewable energy targets as well as increasing women’s participation in industry from from 39% to at least 50% by 2030. However, the ETU estimates that Australia needs 480,000 more workers to deliver the technology and services that will enable Australia’s electricity network to be at least 82% renewables by 2030. To rectify this major hurdle in our path to achieving Net Zero, serious action will need to be taken to attract and retain more workers to key trades in the renewable energy sector.

What do you consider to be the main barriers to growing the clean energy workforce? What actions can be taken to overcome these barriers and attract more workers to the sector?

Key barriers to skilled workforce growth can be understood from the electrical trades case study: apprentices are quitting too often, the education system in place is not sufficient and women are not joining or staying in the industry.

The ETU estimates that the domestic workforce will need over 20,000 additional electrical apprentices to start their apprenticeships each year for the next three years, or drive down low completion rates for apprentices. Data from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) shows that employment related reasons like poor workplace culture, and inadequate wages and conditions, are the main reasons trades students don’t complete their apprenticeships.

The electrical apprenticeship non-completion can be attributed to 3 factors:

• low wages and cost of living pressures
• negative workplace culture (including isolation, poor supervision, and
  experiences of discrimination, harassment and bullying)
• lack of support and mentoring

The Australian Apprenticeship Support Network (AASN) program cost $255 million in the 2022/2023 financial year and has not effectively addressed industry needs, with nearly 60% of the Electrical Apprentices Survey respondents unaware of their AASN provider and around half receiving no support or regular contact. Effective mentoring, placement, and support systems, such as those implemented by industry-led RTOs and GTOs, can significantly mitigate factors contributing to apprenticeship non-completion.

These organisations, with Government funding and expansion, can benefit employer and employee alike. Group Training Organisations (GTOs) can arrange placements across multiple businesses, ensuring apprentices receive comprehensive on-the-job experiences while also providing mentorship, improving work-place culture and wage support for apprentices: supporting them in their personal and professional development. GTOs have also been found to boost retention with women in the industry by allowing them to switch employers or workplaces, providing a better training environment.

Women often avoid skilled trades due to gender stereotypes, lack of female role models, challenging work environments with inadequate facilities and inflexible hours. According to industry sources, women are 39% of the smart energy industry and just 2% of solar installers. To attract and retain more women, it is crucial to promote inclusivity, provide strong mentorship, ensure gender inclusive facilities, and offer flexible training and career advancement opportunities to combat the inherently challenging nature of technical trade work. The ETU found that poor workplace culture more adversely affects women in the
electrical trade, with 23% of female apprentices considering quitting due to workplace issues compared to 15% of male apprentices. Structural issues in the industry include a culture of long hours with little flexibility and inadequate amenities for women. A national ETU survey revealed that nearly half of female workers lacked access to designated toilets for men and women and had raised concerns about workplace amenities.

To increase the number of women in clean energy roles, targeted support including inclusive workplaces and effective mentorship are essential. The Australian Government should consider supporting programs like the Smart Energy Council’s Gender Action Plan, Australian Women in Solar Energy’s, Solar Sisters, and ETU’s WAVE program. The ETU reports that when women are supported and mentored through their apprenticeship, over 90% go on to long term employment in the sector.

Another measure to make key trade workplaces more equipped for gender parity is for businesses bidding for publicly funded projects should be required to show how they will overcome barriers to female participation and ensure a safe and supportive workplace for all employees.

This can be done through the demonstrating how they will:

• Commit to a community of practice in gender parity which should guide content development, co-design solutions, encourage and support action, and network with like-minded individuals.
• Provide appropriate amenities for all genders, including sanitary bins and gendered bathrooms.
• Supply high-quality, gender- and body-type appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
• Offer flexible working arrangements to accommodate care responsibilities.
• Actively eliminate workplace discrimination based on various personal characteristics.
• Support a minimum ratio of women apprentices on each project.

Establishing a Clean Energy Jobs Commissioner would be a statutory role responsible for aiding the government in the energy transition by coordinating work programs across departments and all levels of government. The Commissioner would collaborate with stakeholders to ensure the creation of necessary training places, support workplace learning and development, and promote clean energy trades as attractive career options, particularly to diverse groups such as women and First Nations people.

It is important to note, the challenge is not just giving women opportunities, it is to help change our industry workforce context and environment to be more welcoming of people of all genders. At present, workplace gender diversity isn’t recognised by everyone as a problem that needs addressing, in the SEC’s GAP Baseline Survey, almost half of the respondents. The other half of the respondents (51%) declared their workplaces already inclusive, and/or gender diversity is not a problem.

• Already inclusive; we don’t need any further help (41%)
• Not gender diverse, but it works just fine as it is (10%)

The low completion rates for our GAP survey and education in the male-dominated energy industry reflects a general lack of commitment among men to addressing workplace gender diversity issues. The SEC’s “Gender Action Plan 1- Foundations” course, which offers 15 Continual Professional Development points and has been free for over a year, saw half the completions compared to a similarly weighted course.

Another significant barrier to increasing the skilled clean energy workforce is the education system, which is not built for purpose and will not facilitate the scaling up of essential technically skilled workforces. This is detailed further below.

What skills or qualifications are most in demand for clean energy roles, and how can education and training programs better align with these needs?

The clean energy transition demands 38 critical occupations, mainly in trades and technical roles, to adapt existing infrastructure and build new systems for transmission, storage, generation, and distribution. The SEC’s Gender Action Plan survey highlights that the most in-demand skills are technical (63%), followed by systems design and finance (49%) and legal skills (22%). However, current education pathways and programs are inadequate to address the skilled worker shortage the renewables sector is facing. The ETU points out 3 aspects which are holding back electrician education nationally: there being not enough trades schools, renewable energy electives not being taught and skill shortages in the vocational education and training (VET) sector. To increase the workforce in skilled trades for renewable energy, Australia’s education pathways must clearly demonstrate that careers in this sector are viable, profitable, and meaningful. Collaboration between Higher Education, TAFE, and the VET sector should align with industry needs and focus on the specific skills and knowledge required.

Aligning with industry needs should include VET and TAFE curriculum adaptation to reflect the evolving needs and opportunities in the clean energy sector and the skills needed to deliver it. Secondary and Tertiary institutions should similarly include more information on the careers the renewable energy sector offers. Connecting these institutions with work-programs should be done through scaled and degree apprenticeship programs which integrate practical experience with academic learning. Ultimately, it is shown when industry gets involved with workforce development, higher completion rates are more than expected. These efforts are succeeding in disparate corners of the energy labour market29 and should take centre stage with federal support.

Do you think there is a need to improve ease of mobility of workers between states or from overseas? If yes, what could be done to improve mobility? Does skilled migration help address workforce or expertise shortfalls? If Yes, what are the barriers to engaging overseas workers that need to be addressed?

As the JSA’s report explains, education and training are critical aspects of easing and improving mobility of workers, especially when complimented by migration. More apprentices are of course needed and the domestic skilled labour market developed, but in the immediate term, skilled migration will be used to meet the demands of our 2030 energy targets. However, the current electrician shortage is global, with many countries striving to meet renewable and emissions reduction targets and as such places Australia in competition with other nations transitioning their energy market. A 2021 Boston Consulting Group analysis ranked Australia as the third most attractive destination for migrant workers, after Canada and the US, though it is less appealing to highly educated individuals. However, Australia is the top choice for migrants from the Asia-Pacific region.

The potential to utilise migration as a source of skilled workers in the short term is hampered by the current migration program, which the 2023 Migration Review found to be unfit for purpose and fails to attract the skilled workers needed. Australia’s strict skills assessments can cause some migrants to fail onshore licensing requirements despite passing pre-migration assessments, leaving them in “labour market limbo”. The ETU recommends the reinstatement and redesign of Offshore Technical Skills Assessment pathways to alleviate some of the significant costs associated and raise the age cap.

If effectively co-designed with industry this system could be expanded to include clear pathways for other energy sector trade qualifications. While migration alone won’t solve the clean energy transition challenges, a well-designed skilled migration program can help address worker shortages and fill gaps in the domestic workforce.

To address skills shortages effectively, it is crucial that wages and conditions for migrant workers align with industry standards. Employers using temporary migrant workers must also invest in training and developing the next generation of electrical workers. This can be supported through the development of an Electrical Industry Labour Agreement and other Labour agreements in similarly essential trade sectors. This agreement should be a collaborative effort between the Federal Government, unions and employers and includes requirements to train the next generation of Australian electrical workers and provide secure, industry conditions to all workers irrespective of migration status.

These measures would simplify, reduce the cost of, and make migration to Australia for electrical trades more appealing to the skilled workers necessary for achieving our net-zero future.