Illawarra residents can access free microskills courses to upskill to work in the renewable energy sector, including in wind farms.
The NSW government today released eight microskills courses to get workers ready for jobs in the rapidly growing renewable energy sector.
Funding for these courses has been secured in the state-federal National Skills Agreement and as part of the roll out, Illawarra residents can access 200 fee-free courses in two areas.
The free courses are in the Prepare to Work in the Renewable Energy Sector and the Introduction to Wind Farms microskills courses.
The fee-free courses are available to residents in Renewable Energy Zones, including the Illawarra Renewable Energy Zone.
The lack of skilled workers is one of the major impediments to the roll out of renewable energy infrastructure, particularly as all of NSW's remaining coal-fired power stations start to close down.
According to a report from industry body Clean Energy Australia, Australia's skilled workforce would need to double in the next five to seven years to meet the country's Net Zero ambitions.
The free courses will be delivered by TAFE online, and in addition to the free courses others to be rolled are:
- Emergency Responder Electric Vehicle Incident and Emergency Response
- Introduction to fuel-cell electric vehicles
- Contextualised fuel-cell electric vehicle
- Hydrogen Energy Fundamentals
- Electric Vehicle Charging station baseline knowledge
- Refuelling fuel-cell electric vehicles
Announcing the courses, NSW Premier Chris Minns said funding from the agreement with the Commonwealth would address areas of skills shortages.
"These courses are an example of where funding from the NSA can be utilised to ensure TAFE NSW accelerates skills training in renewable energy through collaboration with industry and government,' he said.
All states and the Commonwealth government signed the National Skills Agreement last week, which will take effect from January 2024.
The agreement will see $3.81 billion of Commonwealth money invested in NSW's vocational education sector, an additional $1.055 on previous funding.
The Illawarra has seen its own, home-grown approach to preparing workers to build the renewable energy transition, with Bulli actress-turned-environmental activist Yael's Stone's Hi Neighbour initiative providing scholarships for workers to upskill into green energy roles.
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