The first major overhaul to Australia’s vocational training in rooftop solar and storage in more than a decade will equip the industry for the energy needs of tomorrow, writes Gavin Dennett.
Australia’s vocational training landscape in small-scale renewables is undergoing its biggest overhaul in more than a decade. In late December 2022, the Australian Industry Skills Committee (AISC) announced a major update to vocational training units in renewables, with the aim being to raise standards, address job shortages and better equip the clean energy industry for modern energy demands.
A technical advisory committee, comprising representatives from the Clean Energy Council, Energy Safe Victoria, and industry and training stakeholders, conducted an extensive review and delivered the recommendations to AISC.
On the back of the Clean Energy Council’s “Skilling the Energy Transition” report, released in 2022, which outlined the skills shortages that pose a significant risk to Australia’s clean energy transition, the organisation led the review of vocational training for rooftop solar and small-scale renewables.
“The Australian rooftop solar industry is a true global success story and will continue to lead the way in helping homes and businesses reduce their energy bills and emissions,” says Dr Anita Talberg, the Clean Energy Council’s director of workplace development.
“Its success depends on competent, informed and experienced tradespeople and professionals. These new updates to training – the most significant in more than 10 years – provide a great base for the workforce to continue to grow and provide consumers with safe, quality, clean and affordable energy systems.”
According to David Tolliday, senior training coordinator at the Renewable Energy Centre of Excellence at Holmesglen TAFE Moorabbin campus in Melbourne, the solar training Units of Competency (UoC) were in desperate need of reform.
“A group from industry and education got together during 2022 for the long process of reviewing existing and developing new solar UoC that suit the current needs of industry,” he tells EcoGeneration. “Many of the old solar UoC were first developed in 2008 and have not changed much since.
“The result of this review is more than 25 new solar training UoC and a different approach. The UoC have been broken up into smaller pieces that apply to specific tasks or technologies, something the industry was keen to adapt.
“In time, these new solar UoC will open the industry to new staff – such as women and non-electricians – and meet the increasing demand of industry for specifically trained staff. These changes are addressing the solar industry issue of knowledge and staff shortages.”
According to the Clean Energy Council, the updated training units will deliver the following benefits:
More roles in the rooftop solar industry will have access to formal training. New training units create opportunities for sales and support staff at rooftop solar and storage companies to undertake training to improve customer service and consumer outcomes.
Easing demands on electricians by creating a pathway for non-electricians to become recognised designers of small-scale renewable systems.
Installers and designers can expand their skills with formal training, and can demonstrate to employers and consumers they are professionally qualified to deliver these services, raising standards and consumer confidence.
Clearer training pathways for different grid connections. The updated units will separate grid-connected, off-grid and microgrid, making it simpler for electricians and designers to focus on different services.
Improved sustainability in the industry, with the introduction of new units focused on fault finding, repair and maintenance that will help reduce waste and extend lifetime value for consumers.
“This is a critical change and an opportunity for the industry to catch up so that when people come through training programs, they have the most current information,” says Chris Martell, managing director at registered training organisation (RTO) GSES in Sydney.
“We are currently rewriting our course material to reflect this with new microgrid units, new inspector units, new site inspection units, new electrical basics units for electrical engineers, etc. We are still figuring out how to bundle the units together in the most logical way, but that will be done by the end of June 2023.”
Israel Vogel – an RTO training manager who writes solar design and battery courses at Queensland-based Supply Partners, a wholesaler and new energy RTO – says the vocational training changes coupled with the New Energy Tech Consumer Code (NETCC) replacing Australia’s Approved Solar Retailer program is an exciting time in the industry.
“The New Energy Tech Consumer Code being the new iteration of the Clean Energy Council’s Approved Solar Retailer scheme [still to be administered by the Clean Energy Council] sits separately to the new training units, which obviously the Clean Energy Council is directly involved in, but from the nationally recognised training side of things everything is now broken down into smaller bite-size pieces, which is great and sorely needed,” he tells EcoGeneration.
“It allows a more streamlined approach to training. Say someone comes in and has already done their on-grid solar training, they only need to bolt on a small bit to go onto off-grid.”
The training reform provides more desirable pathways for an increasing number people to become solar and battery designers. Previously, people in the industry who are not electricians or engineers had to go through a convoluted process of six or seven handpicked units out of electrical apprentice training to get design accredited. Subsequently, few people pursued it.
“It provides front-end units for admin staff and sales support people to enable a meaningful pathway to eventually becoming a designer,” says Vogel. “Fair enough, they can’t install because they need an electrical licence, but they can now get that first bit of becoming a site surveyor, which is what we are releasing initially.
“Admin and support staff can get an overview to pitch systems to customers with fundamental information that is necessary for PV design. They can then go on to become designers through grid-connect solar or even battery grid-connect design units. We are excited about that, as I expect the wider industry is, too.”