The fear of an impending skills shortage is an ever-present issue in the cabling industry. Dimi Kyriakou reports on one West Australian company that is trialling a new program in state high schools to help address the concern.

Currently there are two major changes affecting the cabling and technical industries in Australia. The first is the migration from analogue to digital TV, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2013. The second, of course, is the rollout of the National Broadband Network, an initiative that is set to connect 11 million homes to high speed optical fibre over the next eight years.

Now, this is nothing new to the cabling industry, but there is still some question as to how the workforce will be able to handle the overwhelming amount of unprecedented work required to complete the NBN rollout.

To help combat this, the Integracom Management Group (a national RTO based in Western Australia) has teamed up with the National Partnership on Youth Attainment and Transitions (YAT) to offer a new Certificate II in Telecommunications training program. This is specifically designed to be delivered through schools in WA, targeting year 11 and 12 students under the guidelines of the YAT funding program.

Integracom director Carl Holmes says that this is a major step forward for the industry, as the Certificate II in Telecommunications is the entry level qualification for students who wish to become technicians to eventually work on projects such as the NBN rollout and in the Digital Reception Technology (MATV) and electronic security industries.

“This course was designed to give the students an idea of the different types of technical careers that are available so they can decide which specific area they want to move into on completion of the course,” he says.

“The course also allows them to gain a Restricted Registration (cabling licence), which makes them fairly marketable in the workplace and enables them to legally work on ELV cabling systems in a domestic installation.”

On top of the minimum requirement of 80 hours on-the-job experience, the training program covers telephone installations, introduction to home cabling systems (Smart Wiring), introduction to optical fibre systems, satellite and antenna installations, CCTV and security alarms, AV installations and IP networks including wireless connectivity. The course units dovetail seamlessly into a Certificate III in Telecommunications, which forms part of the National Skills Shortage List and as such attracts considerable funding in the form of a traineeship.

According to Carl, the Integracom training program will prepare the 115 students currently enrolled to complete cabling work inside homes that will eventually connect to the NBN network termination device being installed as part of the rollout.

“The more IP consumable products that come onto the market, the more people are going to need cabling installed inside their premises. Once the rollout is completed, ongoing contracts will be in place to maintain what is installed inside these homes,” Carl explains.

“We need to up-skill our youth in schools now, to not only help alleviate the skills shortage but to take full advantage of the opportunities afforded for training and work placement through the current technical projects happening nationally today.”

He says the main advantage of partnering with Integracom is that schools will have access to their equipment in specialised training rooms that could be located in a dedicated classroom or at the company’s premises. Industry professionals will also be available throughout the program to teach the students how to use the equipment. Concurrently, a second program is also being trialled where teachers are trained to teach Certificate II as a subject within their school.

However, in order for this program to succeed, industry involvement is critical. It’s clear that the rest of the nation will be watching the progress of the Integracom initiative and, if it thrives, there is great potential for the program to be rolled out across Australia next year.

“Ideally I would like to see a full Certificate II in Telecommunications VET in schools program run in every school, or at a location where students from a group of different schools can complete the training,” Carl says.

“We believe very strongly in this program and that it is the way forward for the industry. We don’t have time to wait another two or three years for something to happen; we need to be doing something