One national system, so many players – comment by CEO Jenny Dodd

TAFEs around the country are set to play a central role as Australia develops the workforce capacity and skills for the $368m AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine program in partnership with the United States and the United Kingdom.

Described as “the biggest industrial undertaking in Australia’s history”, AUKUS will see an estimated 20,000 new jobs, many in the VET sector in areas of advanced manufacturing, engineering and trades, including welding, fitting, boilermaking and electrotechnology.

Skills academy to harness expertise

The centrepiece of the workforce build-up will be a dedicated skills academy in South Australia, with links to TAFE and the VET sector around the country, built on a similar model to that in the US and UK for their nuclear submarine programs.

The government estimates 4000 construction jobs will be required to build the submarine construction facility at the Osborne naval shipyard in South Australia. A further 3000 jobs will be needed for the $8 billion expansion of HMAS Stirling in Western Australia which will be home to the nuclear-powered submarines from the early 2030s.

The Minister for Skills and Training Brendan O’Connor said the task of delivering the skills for the initiative would require a national effort.

“It does centre around South Australia and Western Australia, but the demand is so great, that we’ll have to call upon other parts of the country to supply the skills,” he said.

The skills academy in South Australia will build on the work of Australia’s US and UK partners in delivering the complex skills needed for their own submarine programs.

“There’s no doubt (the skills academies) work because the completion rate of apprenticeships that go through the skills academies in countries like Britain and the United States is very, very high,” Mr O’Connor said.

Workforce challenge to be shared

Australia’s 30-year industry and workforce plan is initially embodied in a Cooperation Agreement signed last week between Defence Minister Richard Marles and the Premier of South Australia Peter Malinauskas at Osborne.

Separately, federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers jointly announced the expansion of HMAS Stirling with Western Australia’s Defence Industry Minister Paul Papalia.

“AUKUS is the biggest industrial undertaking in our history,” Mr Chalmers said.

“It will deliver more investment, more jobs and more opportunities. Places like South Metro TAFE in Rockingham will be central to realising the ambition,” Mr Chalmers said.

Mr Papalia said it was no mistake the announcement was being made at South Metropolitan TAFE, which he described as “the leading tertiary institution in the nation for the defence industry”.

In an op-ed in the West Australian on the weekend, Minister O’Connor acknowledged the obstacles to achieving the necessary workforce capability in the midst of a skills crisis, and foreshadowed the development of a Submarine Workforce and Industry Strategy.

In another response to the AUKUS challenge, the South Australian government announced a partnership with the University of South Australia, the defence industry and Ai Group to fast-track a university degree apprenticeship in the area of software engineering.

Exchange of people and ideas  

Immediately following the AUKUS announcement, South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas left for a visit to the skills academy at BAE Systems’ shipyard at Barrow-in-Furness in northern England, where Britain’s nuclear submarines are built and maintained.

Before he left, the premier said: “We’ve got a lot of work to do as a country to build up the skill base that is required to build what will be the most complex machines ever built in the history of our nation.”

Mr Malinauskas said the objective was to develop a workforce domestically, but said “it would be foolhardy to not contemplate the way we can share knowledge and share experiences”.

This points to a vital element of the AUKUS workforce and skills challenge – the need for exchange and collaboration between the US, UK and Australia on technical skills, particularly on such a highly sensitive military project.

A Financial Review report, The hunt for submarine skills in Barrow, describes the sheer expanse of the UK skills academy that was set up in 2019 and recruits hundreds of apprentices each year for the submarine program.

The first of the AUKUS submarines will be built at Barrow, with the remainder built at Osborne.

“The experience that we’ve had with naval shipbuilding in South Australia tells us that the first of type always brings substantial risk and difficulties,” Mr Malinauskas said.

“But once those are overcome, we can establish a production line that serves the customer exceptionally well.

“The most recent example of that in South Australia is the air warfare destroy destroyer program, where the third ship that came out of Osborne and was of course, far cheaper and far quicker to produce than the first,” he said.

Signing of the Commonwealth and South Australia Submarine Cooperation Agreement at Osborne.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers speaks with an apprentice at WA’s South Metropolitan TAFE following the AUKUS announcement.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas visits the skills academy at Barrow-in-Furness, England. (Image courtesy Financial Review).