The Powering Skills Organisation (PSO) has established its 2025 Workforce Plan to help Australia race towards its net zero goals.

The plan covers a range of opportunities and challenges Australia faces in forming the energy, gas and renewables workforce needed to meet net zero targets and the country’s electrification and technological advancements.

Australia is projected to face a shortage of 42,000 qualified energy trade workers by 2030, which is expected to take a bigger hit by 2050. PSO estimates training has fallen short by 40% over the past ten years, resulting in the shortage of 22,000 apprentices.

PSO also found that critical elements are holding back growth, such as a shortage of trainers, limited training infrastructure and employers unable to take on apprentices despite high demand.

The PSO says that given the long-term nature of the clean energy goals and the Government’s involvement in workforce planning, there is time to make a sustainable course to fill the gaps.

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to prepare our labour and training markets for a fundamentally different future,” PSO chief executive Anthea Middleton says.

“If we get workforce planning right now, we can deliver a just transition that provides safe, stable and highly skilled careers for Australians while helping the world address climate change. The challenge now is to remove the bottlenecks and ensure people can access the training and support they need to succeed.”

The 2025 Workforce Plan, ‘High Load, Short Supply – Bridging the Gap to 2030, was developed with the involvement from more than 280 organisations across Australia. It outlines 31 targeted actions to life workforce capacity, capability, culture and industry confidence.

Some of the actions are upskilling the existing workforce, increasing diversity in the energy workforce, supporting employers to take on more apprentices and improving support for mature-aged apprentices.

The PSO acknowledged that Australia’s energy workforce foundations are strong with significant progress. There are more than 300,000 workers in energy trades which is up by 20% since 2010.

There have also been record numbers of apprentices in training, including women and First Nations people, with governments having a strong focus on investing in energy apprenticeships and training.

“We need to continue to work together, and that’s governments, industry, unions and other stakeholders, to get more apprentices into Australia’s energy sector,” Andrew says

“Our Government’s New Energy Apprenticeship Program is seeing more Australians signing up to work in the sector, and we’re making a $30 million investment in our VET trainer workforce that will help grow the number of electrical VET teachers.”